Original oil on hardboard with cultured pearl, 61" by 24" including narrative: "With her head always in the clouds, her gaze fixed on some distant horizon, Mme. Alba knew her friends had often confuddled her impassionate concern for the well-being of artists as a bit toffee-snoot. All save Geaudeux (go-DOO) -- or, “simply Van,” as he insisted she call him. Naturally, he could not abide with any of them, for his heart nearly leapt from its cage whenever he caught sight of his beloved Mme. Alba, or Peaches, as he liked to call her -- no matter that she hadn’t a smidgeon of pigeon in her. To Geaudeux, Mme. Alba was a pearl plucked straight from his oyster and no one could bring her down from so lofty a perch as the easel from which he would paint her: She would be his -- he had but to catch her in the sky." - Van Geaudeux