Lady Wearing a Large White Cap

Amerikanische Malerei 1770–1790, circa 1780

Shown from the waist up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a ruby-red dress and voluminous, pleated white headdress sits against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our right, but she looks at us from the corners of her dark gray eyes. She has thin eyebrows, lightly flushed cheeks, faintly smiling lips, and a wide, cleft chin over a slight double chin. A flesh-colored mole is just above the left corner of her mouth. Gray hair is swept up under the upside-down U-shaped headdress, which is pleated with translucent white fabric along the front and up and over the back. Another ribbon is solid white with a blue, red, and yellow floral pattern, and another is dotted with solid white against transparent fabric. The earring we see is a silver, ornate cross shape, and four strands of tiny pearls are tight to her neck like a choker. More translucent white cloth, now edged in ruffles, wraps around her neck and shoulders and is gathered under a bow tied with more of the floral-patterned ribbon. The vivid red dress has elbow-length sleeves with a looping gold design near the cuffs. White ruffles peek beyond the edges of the cuffs, and she wears a ring on the pinky finger of her left hand. The bodice is tightly fitting, and the skirt bunches up behind the woman in the wood chair, the back of which curves just beyond her right shoulder, to our left. She unfurls a scroll of music with one hand and holds the sheet with the other. Her left elbow, to our right, rests on the top of a narrow, black keyboard. The background is nearly black.
Artista
Amerikanische Malerei 1770–1790
Datazione
circa 1780
Tipologia
Dipinto
Tecnica
Olio su tela
Dimensioni
76,5 × 65 cm
Collezione
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Licenza
Pubblico dominio, CC0

Descrizione dell’immagine

Shown from the waist up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a ruby-red dress and voluminous, pleated white headdress sits against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our right, but she looks at us from the corners of her dark gray eyes. She has thin eyebrows, lightly flushed cheeks, faintly smiling lips, and a wide, cleft chin over a slight double chin. A flesh-colored mole is just above the left corner of her mouth. Gray hair is swept up under the upside-down U-shaped headdress, which is pleated with translucent white fabric along the front and up and over the back. Another ribbon is solid white with a blue, red, and yellow floral pattern, and another is dotted with solid white against transparent fabric. The earring we see is a silver, ornate cross shape, and four strands of tiny pearls are tight to her neck like a choker. More translucent white cloth, now edged in ruffles, wraps around her neck and shoulders and is gathered under a bow tied with more of the floral-patterned ribbon. The vivid red dress has elbow-length sleeves with a looping gold design near the cuffs. White ruffles peek beyond the edges of the cuffs, and she wears a ring on the pinky finger of her left hand. The bodice is tightly fitting, and the skirt bunches up behind the woman in the wood chair, the back of which curves just beyond her right shoulder, to our left. She unfurls a scroll of music with one hand and holds the sheet with the other. Her left elbow, to our right, rests on the top of a narrow, black keyboard. The background is nearly black.

Amerikanische Malerei 1770–1790