Femme à la Coiffe de Dentelle

Portrait of a woman in a soft cap tied under the chin and a deep frilled lace collar, painted bust length against a dark ground. Oil on canvas, French School, circa 1820 to 1840.

The classification comes from the painting itself. The cap and the wide frilled collar are the dress of the Romantic period, the 1820s and 1830s, and the warm modeling of the face against a dark ground, with the lace built up in quick broken strokes, is the manner Continental painters carried over from the old masters. This is a cabinet portrait, an intimate likeness meant to hang in a family room rather than a formal commission, and like most of its kind it is unsigned.

The frame is a nineteenth-century French giltwood frame with a carved palmette border, water gilt over gesso. It carries age of its own, with gilt loss and cracking at the corners, and that weathered gold is part of the picture's present character.

Condition: An area of paint and ground loss to the upper left of the canvas, with the weave exposed. Fine craquelure across the surface and a layer of old grime, consistent with the age of the painting. Frame with gilt loss and corner cracking, and a gap between the canvas and frame at the bottom. Offered as found.

Dimensions: Approximately 8.25 by 7 inches.