The most charming portrait! A beautiful blond child with her wooden puppet, oil painting portrait on thick and beveled wood panel and mounted in frame. From experience and aspects of the painting on wood, the old frame, and the clothing, I'm very comfortable putting a date of c.1810-30. She is likely a child of Royalist expats, a child of some luxury, displaced in the Napoleon years post-French Revolutionary times. Very sweet pose, the painting is small, a 6 3/8" x 4 3/4" beveled wood panel, and her face is about 1 1/4" from chin to hairline. Beautiful face. Set into a period frame, raised wood oval on wood mount with a rough gilded finish - perhaps looks like sand surface and has a little bit of disruption. Original to her painting, the outer frame is 10" x 8 3/4" with a maximum depth of 1 1/4". Measurements are also noted on the photos.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. The little painting is excellent - no disruptions, no flaws, nothing to detract from the spectacular capture of this child and her toy. It's a carved wood puppet, soldier. The age shows mostly to the backside, where you can see paper removal and the old beveled wood plank upon which the painting was done. Frame is excellent but the pebbled surface mat only ranks in good condition. I've always been tempted to take this frame all apart and change the surface of the larger rectangular frame. I suspect it was once covered in silk moire fabric or a silk velvet, which would be consistent for the period's habit. Yes, found in France. You will love this little girl!
