Possibly a photographic print hand-coloured with watercolour. This object is one of five kept loose in a drawer when the group was housed at the Courtauld Institute of Art. It is unclear which frame the objects were originally in and it has not been possible yet to identify the works in the exhibition booklet.
This appears to be a copy of a late 17th miniature. Today we would probably attribute the original miniature to Peter Cross or Nicholas Dixon. It is therefore possible that this facsimile relates to a work described in the Exhibition Catalogue booklet under ‘Case T’ as ‘Carandini P – Duchess de Majarini’. In the late 19th and early 20th century works signed ‘PC’ were often attributed to ‘Paolo Carandini’ or ‘Penelope Cleyn’ (For refence to Carandini see John Murdoch, “Seventeenth-century English miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum”, Nicholas Dixon, museum number P.4-1942, and Peter Cross, museum number P.55-1935). The sitter ‘Duchess de Majarini’ is possibly meant to be the Duchess of Mazarin (1646-1699), mistress of Charles II.
Unknown woman about 1680-90, half-length, in a state of ‘undress’, wearing a blue nightgown, partially open at the front, over a white chemise. She has brown hair worn in short ringlets, parted in the middle.