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1916Thanhouser CompanyTwo reelsDrama

The Nymph

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“The prudery of society folk and their refusing to listen to the explanations of an innocent girl, forms the basic theme for The Nymph, a charming Thanhouser-Mutual two-act drama, starring Barbara Gilroy. Miss Gilroy is effective in the role of a simple fisher maiden who lives alone with her father on an island off the coast. Later, as a member of the younger society set, she continues her good work and leaves the impression of having given a perfect characterization. A young girl, the story reveals, lives with her father on a small island off the coast. Visitors are infrequent. As she is swimming one day, an artist, attracted by the scenery, watches the girl sporting in the water. The model of his dreams presents herself in the girl. At last he can paint his masterpiece! On her way home, the artist overtakes her and asks her to pose for him, offering her large pay. She indignantly refuses, and he is compelled to abandon his painting of The Nymph. Several weeks later the girl starts north to visit wealthy relatives. While there she meets and is wooed by a young man of a rich family.

“The artist, who is well known in the city, meets the girl at her relatives’ home and recognizes in the handsomely gowned debutante the girl of his dreams. He asks her to marry him. She gently refuses. In a fit of jealous rage, he determines to be revenged. One day he invites the girl and her aunt and uncle to an exhibition of his works, and displays in the most prominent position a painting of The Nymph—a nude girl standing at the water’s edge. The face was her own. The artist, with a look of surprise, explains that he did not think she objected to the showing of a picture for which she had posed. The girl protests in vain. The evidence was so plainly against her that they refused to listen to her and ordered her to return to her home. Her fiancé had faith in his sweetheart and goes to the artist and compels him to tell the true story. With proofs of the girl’s innocence, he calls on her relatives and then goes to his fiancée’s home to make her his bride.”

Summary from Reel Life · 27 May 1916

What the papers said

1 review

“A two-reel number, by Philip Lonergan, featuring Barbara Gilroy, Thomas Curran, and Robert Vaughn. It is the story of an artist who finds a fisher girl bathing off the rocks. He paints her picture in the nude, after she has indignantly refused to pose for him. Later he exhibits it in the city, and the girl’s fiancé takes a very …

Read in full · 1 min

“A two-reel number, by Philip Lonergan, featuring Barbara Gilroy, Thomas Curran, and Robert Vaughn. It is the story of an artist who finds a fisher girl bathing off the rocks. He paints her picture in the nude, after she has indignantly refused to pose for him. Later he exhibits it in the city, and the girl’s fiancé takes a very proper revenge, by punishing the artist and slashing the picture. Miss Gilroy is attractive in the part of the girl. This is not an especially strong subject, but tells a good running story and holds the attention well throughout.”

The Moving Picture World · 10 June 1916

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Cast and crew

Director
Fred A. Kelsey
Cast
Arthur Bauer as the nymph’s uncle
Barbara Gilroy as the nude bathing girl; the “nymph”
C.R. Mc Caskill
Inda Palmer as the nymph’s aunt
Robert Vaughn as her fiancé
Thomas A. Curran as the artist
Writer
Philip Lonergan

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More about this film

Filmed in
Florida
Bowers’ notes

The Florida Metropolis, April 6, 1916, reported that Fred A. Kelsey had arrived the week before and had begun directing this film. The same periodical on April 12th reported that production was in progress.

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1916 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “The Nymph”. thanhouser.org/films/the-nymph/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known