Figure 2.--Here is an original pastel drawing on vellum depicting a young child building a house of cards. Like many still-life and portrait pastels that were created in the early part of the 18th Century, this work is unsigned. This composition, in this medium and with the costume of this subject points to its French origin. |
A reader asks us if we could tell anything about this portrait such as when it was painted and if the subject is a boy or girl. All that we know for sure is that there is a label on the back which reads, "Galerie Darthea Speyer, Paris, France". This suggests that it is a French painting, but is not proof positive. It seems to us a very high quality portrait. From the look of the painting we would guess that it iS French we would dae it to the 1820s. The Greeks at the time were fighting the Ottoman Turks for their independence. This generated a great deal of interest and sympathy in Europe at the time. The headwear looks to us rather like a tyilized turban, although we have seen women with such headwear--often older women. This looks to more like fancy dress. The neckwear may be more telling. It looks to us much more like neckwear a male youth might wear more than a young woman. We are not at all sure about this and would welcome reader assessments.
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