My Golden Jolie Blonde
1987 by George Rodrigue
Oil on canvas
30×24 inches
Price upon request
Location: Rodrigue Studio New Orleans, in conjunction with the special exhibition Rodrigue’s Heartland: Under the Oaks and Out of the Swamp opening October 14th. Learn more
An especially enchanting Jolie Blonde from George Rodrigue, My Golden Jolie Blonde is both contemporary and classic at once. Unlike his first painting of her (1974), created entirely from his imagination, Rodrigue’s later portraits of the Cajun beauty are all from photographs. He painted Jolie Blonde in the same way he painted Longfellow’s Evangeline, waiting for her lover beneath the magnificent Louisiana live oak.
Although Rodrigue painted numerous versions of Jolie Blonde, using dozens of models, his interpretations of her have become the standard “look” of Jolie Blonde. It is for this reason that none of the portraits refer directly to the women who modeled for a particular painting. Rather, every version, no matter the model, is meant to represent the same romantic muse from the Cajun waltz.