Portrait of a Young Girl
Oil Painting
ca. 1730 (painted)
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 | |
Title | Portrait 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 |
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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 created | January 29, 2004 |
Record URL |
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