Elegant young woman in the fashion of her time, French Empire to shortly afterward, c.1810-20. She has a tiara which might be red coral, a flower or other adornment in her tightly curled coiffure, a choker of large pearls and earrings to match, and a gown off-shoulder. No signature by our very talented portrait artist, and no ID. Came to me by way of an estate collection, anonymous, in France. No way to know more about her than what the artist has revealed. Measurements noted on the photos.
Very good condition for age and type. The portrait is superb! A beautiful palette that seems to form a stormy sky behind her. The gouache painting on thin wafer is exquisitely done. No warp, no chips nor hairlines, no loss of paint. Oddly, what you see through her shoulder as darkening is some flaked dark paint from the backside of the wafer. It is tempting to put a dark paper behind her to see if that might reduce the effect, since the artist obviously put the paint there to shade or tint through the wafer. Often we find an original old foil of silver which is there to bounce light through the painting and skin tones. It's unusual to see a darker backing. Interesting! The frame is brass with a face of bronze-like alloy, and is in fine form. Very slightly convex cover glass and all the original backing intact.
