A Beautiful Portrait of a Beautiful Young Woman Dressed in Black with a Lace Hat Embroidered with Flowers

THE STORY - Of course it was that beautiful face staring out of the murky background with those gorgeous large brown eyes that caught my attention and to be honest instantly melted my heart but what completely bowled me over was the little lace cap perched on top of her head embroidered with large cream flowers, it gave that beautiful face a playful animation but also lent a sense of mystery to the painting. The painting is not large measuring in its wonderfully deep wooden gesso frame approx 14&3/4" in height by 13" in width and I would think would date to the first half of the 1800s, circa 1840. It is I think very well painted with oil on board, I particularly adore the painting of her face, the lightness of the brush strokes giving a gentle elegance to her beautiful features and a lovely glint to her eyes, but I also adore the wonderful use of colours in her skin tone with the lovely pinkness to her cheeks giving a sense of youth and innocence upon that ivory coloured skin. It is a Half Portrait showing her sitting next to a table upon which her arm rests, she is dressed in black but for some reason I find it hard to believe it is a mourning portrait although it does look like she maybe wearing a mourning brooch on the white lace ruff on the neck of her dress. Upon her resting hand we see she wears two gold rings, so I think she is married and also a long gold chain around her neck. And then apart from the dots of the cloth that cover the table the rest of the background is quite indistinct there is an area of light which could suggest a window and to the side of that an area of reddy brown which could be the heavy curtain pulled across from the window. And that is what I think is so mysterious and playful about this painting out of all the darkness of the backgrounds there shines this beautiful face upon which flowers are crowned.

AGE - Circa 1840

CONDTION - Both the painting and the frame are in good considering their age of approximately 180 years. I do wonder at some point in the paintings life if there may have been some restoration done as as I hope you can see from the photos there is almost a creasing appearance to the painting which could be caused by some new varnish being applied. When I photographed her it was next to a window on a sunny day and I think this has helped to highlight those creases, it cannot be denied they are there but maybe not as obvious as some of my photos suggest. But the good thing about the new varnish there there are no losses of paint. The frame is solid but there are chips in some places to the gesso especially on one of the bottom corners which I hope you can see from in the 9th photo.

DIMENSIONS (Approx) - Framed - Height 14&3/4" / 38cm, Width 13" / 33cm, Depth 2" / 5cm. Image Size - Height 9" / 23cm, Width 7&1/4" / 18.5cm

So there she is my enigmatic young lady, with her darling little cap playfully shining out from the dark. How I would love to know the history of this painting and exactly what was being articulated by the choice of setting and of course dress. But I guess that will never be known and I have to say this painting suits a sense of mystery very well indeed.