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Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose: The Story of a Painting
A lavishly illustrated true story of the creation of a masterpiece and a young girl's central role in its development.
48 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2007
59 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Brewster
24 books32 followersBeing able to create books about history is a dream job for me since I’ve always been enthralled by history. When I was growing up in Georgetown, Ontario, our house was just around the corner from the town library. And I haunted its children’s section—reading sometimes four or five books a week. Historical fiction titles by writers like Geoffrey Trease and Rosemary Sutcliffe were particular favourites. I still treasure a copy of Ernest Thompson Seton’s Two Little Savages that I was given as a prize in a library reading contest in 1960.
Since ours was the only house in the neighbourhoood without a TV antenna on the roof, reading was my primary form of entertainment. My parents thought their four children would read more without a television to distract us. And they were right, we did — though we also showed up at our friends’ houses whenever our favourite shows were on!
Our family had moved to Georgetown from a small town in Scotland in 1956, when I was six years old. When I was thirteen we moved to Guelph, Ontario, and I went to high school and university there. My first real job after graduating with an English degree in 1971 was with Scholastic – then a fairly new publishing company in Canada. As an editor for Scholastic Inc. from 1972 to 1984 in both Toronto and New York, I was involved in the creation of Scholastic’s Canadian children’s publishing program as well as in the selecting of books for Scholastic’s school book clubs. (One of our early discoveries was the teenaged author Gordon Korman and his Bruno and Boots books.)
Between 1984 and 2004 I was the Editorial Director and Publisher of Madison Press Books in Toronto. While there, I helped to create a number of successful books for both adults and young readers including Robert Ballard’s The Discovery the Titanic, that has sold over 1.5 million copies, and TITANIC: An Illustrated History a book that provided inspiration for James Cameron’s epic movie. Among the award-winning children’s books that I edited and compiled are: Polar the Titanic Bear, On Board the Titanic, First to Fly, and Journey to Ellis Island.
The first children’s book that I actually both wrote and compiled was Anastasia’s Album: The Last Tsar’s Youngest Daughter Tells Her Own Story, which was published in 1996 and won a number of awards. In 1997 I wrote the text for Inside the Titanic, which featured amazing cutaway illustrations by Ken Marschall. The next year, with Laurie Coulter, I compiled a book filled with fascinating facts about the Titanic entitled 882 1/2 Amazing Answers to Your Questions About the Titanic. Laurie and I went on to write To Be A Princess in 2001 which was a Silver Birch and Red Cedar nominee. In 2004, the 60th anniversary of D-Day, I wrote On Juno Beach which won the Children’s Literature of Canada Information Book Award in 2005. The success of that book encouraged me to write At Vimy Ridge which appeared in 2007 and won the Norma Fleck Award in 2008.
In 2005, I decided to devote myself to writing full-time and have produced seven books since then: The Other Mozart: The Life of the Famous Chevalier de Saint George published Fall 2006; Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose: The Story of a Painting and Breakout Dinosaurs. DIEPPE: Canada’s Darkest Day of World War II was released in 2009 and was followed by the novel Prisoner of Dieppe in Scholastic’s new I Am Canada series. A second novel, Deadly Voyage appeared in Fall ’11 and for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic, I produced a large adult book entitled Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage in Spring 2012.
Since ours was the only house in the neighbourhoood without a TV antenna on the roof, reading was my primary form of entertainment. My parents thought their four children would read more without a television to distract us. And they were right, we did — though we also showed up at our friends’ houses whenever our favourite shows were on!
Our family had moved to Georgetown from a small town in Scotland in 1956, when I was six years old. When I was thirteen we moved to Guelph, Ontario, and I went to high school and university there. My first real job after graduating with an English degree in 1971 was with Scholastic – then a fairly new publishing company in Canada. As an editor for Scholastic Inc. from 1972 to 1984 in both Toronto and New York, I was involved in the creation of Scholastic’s Canadian children’s publishing program as well as in the selecting of books for Scholastic’s school book clubs. (One of our early discoveries was the teenaged author Gordon Korman and his Bruno and Boots books.)
Between 1984 and 2004 I was the Editorial Director and Publisher of Madison Press Books in Toronto. While there, I helped to create a number of successful books for both adults and young readers including Robert Ballard’s The Discovery the Titanic, that has sold over 1.5 million copies, and TITANIC: An Illustrated History a book that provided inspiration for James Cameron’s epic movie. Among the award-winning children’s books that I edited and compiled are: Polar the Titanic Bear, On Board the Titanic, First to Fly, and Journey to Ellis Island.
The first children’s book that I actually both wrote and compiled was Anastasia’s Album: The Last Tsar’s Youngest Daughter Tells Her Own Story, which was published in 1996 and won a number of awards. In 1997 I wrote the text for Inside the Titanic, which featured amazing cutaway illustrations by Ken Marschall. The next year, with Laurie Coulter, I compiled a book filled with fascinating facts about the Titanic entitled 882 1/2 Amazing Answers to Your Questions About the Titanic. Laurie and I went on to write To Be A Princess in 2001 which was a Silver Birch and Red Cedar nominee. In 2004, the 60th anniversary of D-Day, I wrote On Juno Beach which won the Children’s Literature of Canada Information Book Award in 2005. The success of that book encouraged me to write At Vimy Ridge which appeared in 2007 and won the Norma Fleck Award in 2008.
In 2005, I decided to devote myself to writing full-time and have produced seven books since then: The Other Mozart: The Life of the Famous Chevalier de Saint George published Fall 2006; Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose: The Story of a Painting and Breakout Dinosaurs. DIEPPE: Canada’s Darkest Day of World War II was released in 2009 and was followed by the novel Prisoner of Dieppe in Scholastic’s new I Am Canada series. A second novel, Deadly Voyage appeared in Fall ’11 and for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic, I produced a large adult book entitled Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage in Spring 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
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April 4, 2013In Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, Hugh Brewster has fictionalized the story of the creation of John Singer Sargent’s best-loved painting in the voice of young Kate, the daughter of Frank and Lily Millet, who are Sargent’s hosts one summer. It is a fascinating story. The reader glimpses the life of artists of the late 1880s and of Kate’s reaction in particular. At first Sargent wants to paint Kate, but friends of the family arrive with two daughters.
Polly and Dolly have the fair hair Sargent is looking for, so as gently as possible, Kate is replaced. Despite her initial ambivalence about modellings, being removed from the painting crushes her and she struggles with her new “observer” status as the painting takes shape. There are many highs and lows as the summer and fall progress. Through the voice of his young but observant protagonist, Brewster makes accessible the rarified world of art, in particular this close community of artists and their families. Sargent’s work, both finished paintings and sketches from his notebook, offer a feast for the eyes and are respectfully reproduced in page after page. Period photographs of the village and the Millet’s home compliment the fine art. Brewster, the historian, provides a wealth of information at the back: information about the paintings, biographies of each individual in the story and a bibliography. And, yes, in the following year, Sargent does paint Kate’s portrait. This is a beautiful book and a touching story.
Reviewed by Theo Heras in Canadian Children's Book News
Spring 2008 VOL.31 NO.2
Polly and Dolly have the fair hair Sargent is looking for, so as gently as possible, Kate is replaced. Despite her initial ambivalence about modellings, being removed from the painting crushes her and she struggles with her new “observer” status as the painting takes shape. There are many highs and lows as the summer and fall progress. Through the voice of his young but observant protagonist, Brewster makes accessible the rarified world of art, in particular this close community of artists and their families. Sargent’s work, both finished paintings and sketches from his notebook, offer a feast for the eyes and are respectfully reproduced in page after page. Period photographs of the village and the Millet’s home compliment the fine art. Brewster, the historian, provides a wealth of information at the back: information about the paintings, biographies of each individual in the story and a bibliography. And, yes, in the following year, Sargent does paint Kate’s portrait. This is a beautiful book and a touching story.
Reviewed by Theo Heras in Canadian Children's Book News
Spring 2008 VOL.31 NO.2
July 15, 2014
Put "Story of a Painting" in the title and I'm there. I just happen to love John Singer Sargent as well, so there is nothing but good to be heard from me about this book. Let's have more of these!
March 5, 2020
This is picture book, could be a children's book with reading level of at least, 3rd grade. However, there are wonderful pictures of some of Sargent's best works. This book tells the story, from the viewpoint of one of the little girls in this painting. Very well done.
March 1, 2018
Charming!
December 28, 2018
Historical fiction, with paintings by John Singer Sargent.
February 6, 2019
Quite beautiful! Very interesting fictional description.
December 16, 2022
A well told story about the famous painting, but longer than I was hoping for a co-op group read aloud.
July 16, 2023
A really lovely little book about the story behind John Singer Sargent's painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.
November 18, 2025
Not really a kid's book but interesting. Art history at its finest. And beautiful art, too.
December 14, 2007
This review was originally posted on my blog at Big A little a
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose tells the tale of one famous John Singer Sargent painting from the perspective of a young girl named Kate: "The summer I was five, John Singer Sargent came to visit us. He wasn't a famous artist then. But he painted a picture in our garden that became quite famous. Here is how I remember what happened..."
Kate, the daughter of painter Ned Abbey, was chosen to model for the painting, which Sargent wished would "make people simply rave with pleasure." Kate is initially reluctant about posing--an artist's daughter, she knows it can be tedious and painful--but soon is proud of being part of such a beautifully conceived work. She poses tirelessly, wearing an itchy blond wig, while artists and authors socialize at her bustling home in Broadway, England.
One day, just as Sargent has completed his sketches of Kate and sets up a large white canvas "far too big to put on an easel," guests arrive to the house:
"I remember Mr. Frederick Barnard (another artist!) coming through the gate in his straw hat. He was followed by his wife and two daughters, Polly, aged eleven, and Dorothy (nicknamed Dolly), who was seven. I saw that Polly and Dolly both had fair hair and beautiful curls. Mr. Sargent saw it too.
Things then happened very fast. Within minutes I was standing off to once side and Polly and Dolly were holding the lanterns between the rose bushes."
Ouch.
Hugh Brewster's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose: The Story of a Painting is a marvel for the 7-12-year-old reader. Kate's voice is a compelling guide through the years it takes to create a masterpiece. Through Kate we learn about John Singer Sargent and his work, what it takes to compose a large-scale painting like Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, about artistic circles in late 19th-century England, and about Impressionism. Brewster illustrates this wonderful picture book for older readers with Sargent's own paintings and sketches, photographs and postcards from the era, and photographs of relevant objects, like flags and tennis rackets. Brewster also has included biographical information about the real-life Kate, her family members, and visitors the Abbey home as an appendix. Published by Kids Can Press, the production value of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose is excellent, so children will appreciate Sargent's lush, light-infused paintings fully. Brewster's skill at combining the fictional (in Kate's voice and presentation of daily life) and the real (everything else) is masterful--a model for this increasingly popular technique for presenting history and biography to children.
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose tells the tale of one famous John Singer Sargent painting from the perspective of a young girl named Kate: "The summer I was five, John Singer Sargent came to visit us. He wasn't a famous artist then. But he painted a picture in our garden that became quite famous. Here is how I remember what happened..."
Kate, the daughter of painter Ned Abbey, was chosen to model for the painting, which Sargent wished would "make people simply rave with pleasure." Kate is initially reluctant about posing--an artist's daughter, she knows it can be tedious and painful--but soon is proud of being part of such a beautifully conceived work. She poses tirelessly, wearing an itchy blond wig, while artists and authors socialize at her bustling home in Broadway, England.
One day, just as Sargent has completed his sketches of Kate and sets up a large white canvas "far too big to put on an easel," guests arrive to the house:
"I remember Mr. Frederick Barnard (another artist!) coming through the gate in his straw hat. He was followed by his wife and two daughters, Polly, aged eleven, and Dorothy (nicknamed Dolly), who was seven. I saw that Polly and Dolly both had fair hair and beautiful curls. Mr. Sargent saw it too.
Things then happened very fast. Within minutes I was standing off to once side and Polly and Dolly were holding the lanterns between the rose bushes."
Ouch.
Hugh Brewster's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose: The Story of a Painting is a marvel for the 7-12-year-old reader. Kate's voice is a compelling guide through the years it takes to create a masterpiece. Through Kate we learn about John Singer Sargent and his work, what it takes to compose a large-scale painting like Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, about artistic circles in late 19th-century England, and about Impressionism. Brewster illustrates this wonderful picture book for older readers with Sargent's own paintings and sketches, photographs and postcards from the era, and photographs of relevant objects, like flags and tennis rackets. Brewster also has included biographical information about the real-life Kate, her family members, and visitors the Abbey home as an appendix. Published by Kids Can Press, the production value of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose is excellent, so children will appreciate Sargent's lush, light-infused paintings fully. Brewster's skill at combining the fictional (in Kate's voice and presentation of daily life) and the real (everything else) is masterful--a model for this increasingly popular technique for presenting history and biography to children.
May 14, 2008
Illuminating (pun intended, ha, ha) into the history of how Sargent's stunning piece, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose came into being.
Written in picture book format, illustrated with other Sargent drawings, paintings, and letters that he concurrently painted at the time he did C,L,L,R.
What a fun read--it's told in the voice of one of the daughters of Sargent's friend (who was asked to pose for C,L,L,R, and was then slighted in favor of a more golden-haired little girl. Sargent does end up showing this offended little quail that he does cherish her in the end with a priceless gift).
A great book for snuggling up with (with, or even without kiddos) on a rainy day.
Written in picture book format, illustrated with other Sargent drawings, paintings, and letters that he concurrently painted at the time he did C,L,L,R.
What a fun read--it's told in the voice of one of the daughters of Sargent's friend (who was asked to pose for C,L,L,R, and was then slighted in favor of a more golden-haired little girl. Sargent does end up showing this offended little quail that he does cherish her in the end with a priceless gift).
A great book for snuggling up with (with, or even without kiddos) on a rainy day.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2009
John Singer Sargent has long been my favorite artist so I was drawn to this fictionalized story of one of his greatest works. The general facts and the included footnotes where really interesting, and of course the pictures were gorgeous. There were several pieces included I had never seen before. However the fictionalized story was a little weak, deserving of the 3 stars. I do love the imagery of everyone sprinting to the canvas the moment the light was right in the evening and Sargent furiously painting for those 20 minutes before the sun was too low.
July 25, 2010
This fictionalized account of John Singer Sargant's creation of one of his most famous paintings was wonderful to read. The book is written from a child's perspective, and I do recommend it to my friend's with children who are interested in art. But it's also a great read for adults interested in the creative process or interested in Impressionism and some of it's well-known players.
February 12, 2010
This beautifully designed book includes sketches and paintings by John Singer Sargent, along with photos of the people and places mentioned in the story. It's a lovely introduction to the work of Sargent and the lifestyle of the ex-patriots and artists of his time.
October 26, 2011
This is one of my favorite paintings of all time, so I am a little biased. It's a huge painting, and it does glow!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews