In 1929, 19-year-old Ida Rogers answered an advertisement for a model, placed by Chicago artist Ivan Albright. The resulting portrait—“Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida”—serves as a powerful, if macabre, reminder of the fleeting nature of time and beauty.

We do not know Ida's thoughts on the final painting, but we do know she quickly grew tired of the long hours of sitting. Near the bottom left chair leg, Albright painted a peanut shell, a reference to Rogers’s habit of munching on peanuts to pass the time.