Mrs. Davies Davenport

Britische Malerei 1780–1810, 1782–1784

Shown from the waist up in front of a loosely painted landscape, a young woman with pale skin, flushed cheeks, and light brown hair curling softly around her face and neck turns her head to look at us from over her shoulder in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces our left in profile, and she looks at us with dark brown eyes under arched brows. She has smooth, round cheeks, and her pink lips are closed. She wears a wide brimmed ivory-white, straw hat that casts a shadow across her forehead. At the front of the crown, a tawny-brown bow is set against a ribbon striped with dove gray and white. A sheer, white cape edged with feathers or fur drapes over the shoulders of her rose-pink, satin dress. Ruffles along her chest appear to be tied with fawn-brown bows. A white, textured area near the bottom edge of the canvas suggests that her hands are clasped in front of her waist in a muff. Behind her, a harvest-gold hillside rises to a band of pine-green trees along the right edge of the composition. Filling most of the background, the opalescent sky has pewter-gray clouds angling across a pale blue sky.
Artist
Britische Malerei 1780–1810
Date
1782–1784
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
76.5 × 64 cm
Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Licence
Public domain, CC0

Image description

Shown from the waist up in front of a loosely painted landscape, a young woman with pale skin, flushed cheeks, and light brown hair curling softly around her face and neck turns her head to look at us from over her shoulder in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces our left in profile, and she looks at us with dark brown eyes under arched brows. She has smooth, round cheeks, and her pink lips are closed. She wears a wide brimmed ivory-white, straw hat that casts a shadow across her forehead. At the front of the crown, a tawny-brown bow is set against a ribbon striped with dove gray and white. A sheer, white cape edged with feathers or fur drapes over the shoulders of her rose-pink, satin dress. Ruffles along her chest appear to be tied with fawn-brown bows. A white, textured area near the bottom edge of the canvas suggests that her hands are clasped in front of her waist in a muff. Behind her, a harvest-gold hillside rises to a band of pine-green trees along the right edge of the composition. Filling most of the background, the opalescent sky has pewter-gray clouds angling across a pale blue sky.

Britische Malerei 1780–1810