Portrait Of A Young Woman With A Hat, 18th Century English School.

This refined portrait illustrates the charm and elegance of the 18th-century English school. The young woman is depicted wearing a large black hat adorned with white feathers, her powdered hair framing a delicately sculpted face. She wears a mauve ribbon tied around her neck and sheer white muslin, draped in fine folds and held in place by a large bow. The dark background highlights the freshness and luminosity of the face, in a style reminiscent of the work of Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and George Romney, masters of English society portraiture. The oval format, popular in the 18th century for female portraits, reinforces the intimacy and elegance of the composition. The painting was examined by a conservator who cleaned it and made some minor repairs. During this conservation, she noted that the canvas had been prepared with a colored coating, green and ochre, depending on the area, serving as a base for the overpainting—a technique characteristic of certain 18th-century pictorial practices. The work is presented in an early 20th-century carved and gilded wooden frame decorated with stylized foliage, which enhances the painting even though it is not its original frame. On the reverse, an exhibition/sale label dated 3 April 1907 identifies the work as “18th Century English School – Portrait of a Young Lady,” under the direction of Brussels expert Fernand Fievez. With his brother Edgard, he ran the Galerie Fievez (founded in 1877 in Brussels), a house renowned for its public sales of paintings and art objects until the 1930s. Dimensions: On view: 90 x 71 cm With frame: 107 x 87.5 cm