Circa 1750 / Young Girl With A Cat – 18th Century Pastel

Pastel – French School, 18th Century. Portrait of a Young Girl with a Cat. Pastel on oval paper, depicting a young girl holding a cat adorned with a ribbon. The figure is shown half-length, in a simple interior, rendered with great softness of modeling and a delicate palette of pink, blue, and pearl gray tones. The powdered hairstyle, the headdress tied under the chin, the costume with light ribbons, and the treatment of the flesh tones place the work in the mid-18th century, around 1745–1765. The whole is fully in keeping with the Rococo style, with particular attention paid to the intimacy of the subject and the expression of youth. The theme of the young girl accompanied by her pet reinforces the private and familial character of this portrait, probably commissioned for a bourgeois or aristocratic circle. 46 x 37