785 - Portrait of a lady, oil on canvas in an oval gilt-coloured frame, 2nd half 19th century

Portrait of a lady, oil on canvas in an oval gilt-coloured frame, 2nd half 19th century Oil on canvas, unsigned. Bust portrait of a young woman, turned towards the viewer and slightly to the right, against a dark ground. The dark hair is waved at the sides and gathered at the nape, above it lies a dark hair ornament. She wears a dark dress with a high pale lace collar held together by a small brooch, with it a long fine chain. Age-appropriate condition, rubbed, partial losses of paint, partial craquelure. Image 75 x 60 cm (HxW), framed in an oval gilt-coloured ornamental frame with an openwork cresting of rocaille and foliage and a cartouche at the foot, frame bumped with losses, frame width 9 cm The portrait forms a pair with the portrait of a gentleman. Such pendants belonged to the standard furnishing of the good room in the middle-class household of the 19th c.; married couples had themselves painted together and hung the portraits facing one another. The oval form with its openwork rocaille cresting takes up forms of the Rococo as the frame makers of the second half of the 19th c. revived them.