Portrait of a Young Girl thumbnail 1
Portrait of a Young Girl thumbnail 2
Not on display

Portrait of a Young Girl

Oil Painting
ca. 1730 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This three-quarter-length portrait shows a young girl in a blue dress. The identities of the artist and the sitter are unknown, as is the date. Clothes can often provide clues for dating: the girl is wearing a scoop-necked blue dress with elbow-length sleeves, a full skirt and a stiffened bodice. For most of the 18th century, however, older children’s fashions were slow to change and tended to resemble those worn by adults. For this reason it can be difficult to work out the date of an anonymous portrait by the style of a child’s clothes. It is analysis of the paint used in this portrait that has dated it to about 1730.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitlePortrait of a Young Girl (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Oil on canvas
Brief description
Portrait of a young girl in a blue dress, painted in the UK by an unknown artist about 1730
Physical description
Three quarter length full face portrait of a young girl in a blue dress, standing by a balustrade with a landscape in the background. She is wearing a scoop necked blue dress with elbow length sleeves, and with frills of a sheer white fabric at the neck and the sleeve hems. The full-skirted dress has a pointed stiffened bodice. Her hair is swept up and away from her face and dressed with a topknot of pearls and flowers, and she holds a basket of flowers.
Dimensions
  • As originally framed height: 84.2cm
  • As originally framed width: 66.4cm
Object history
Bought at Sotheby's (Sussex) sale of Oil Paintings and Watercolours on 18/09/1990 (Lot 729)
Production
Conservators dated painting to ca. 1730 by pigment analysis
Subject depicted
Summary
This three-quarter-length portrait shows a young girl in a blue dress. The identities of the artist and the sitter are unknown, as is the date. Clothes can often provide clues for dating: the girl is wearing a scoop-necked blue dress with elbow-length sleeves, a full skirt and a stiffened bodice. For most of the 18th century, however, older children’s fashions were slow to change and tended to resemble those worn by adults. For this reason it can be difficult to work out the date of an anonymous portrait by the style of a child’s clothes. It is analysis of the paint used in this portrait that has dated it to about 1730.
Collection
Accession number
MISC.199-1990

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Record createdJanuary 29, 2004
Record URL
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