Portrait of an Elegant Lady - 18th century English school

This delicate painting offers our gaze the portrait of a young woman whose barely sketched smile and careless attire awaken a certain concupiscence. Her lascivious attitude and wide-open décolleté plunge the viewer into voluptuous thoughts. Our portrait is a true testament to its time and the exuberant fashion of the late 18th century. Elegant women's outfits rivaled each other in audacity, and the large hats in vogue in the 1770s and 1780s bore names inspired by plays, such as the chapeau bonnette worn over a bonnet and also named "en bateau renversé" or "à la Théodore" after the opera Le Roi Théodore à Venise. The broad, flat-brimmed hat crowned with a cluster of silk ribbons worn by our damsel is identical to that seen in Thomas Gainsborough's 1780 portrait of Miss Heverfield, or that of Charlotte Grote by Sir Joshua Reynold (Devon 1723 - London 1792) in 1784.

Like a jewel box, the period French frame in carved and gilded wood enhances our elegant work.
Dimensions: 13 x 11 cm - 17.5 x 16 cm with frame