We love the way this lady’s dress, including her huge gigot (leg o’mutton) sleeves, are created with big broad strokes of the brush while her high bonnet and lace is defined with dots and dashes. Minimal brush work gives us a very striking folky silhouette. It looks as if her dress may be too big for her body with those huge puffed and stuffed sleeves and her quite stiff-looking bust! Her collar might actually be a separate piece of clothing as it seems to be tied at the shoulder with a bow. Perhaps a separate collar that ties to the dress? Nothing can beat that towering lace bonnet that must be covering a stylish Apollo knot (very tall hair knot held by a comb)! Lace seems to drip from the bonnet, created by blue-grey dots of paint. Her bonnet is adorned further with a great big bow. She wears tight curls around her face—the artist used gum arabic to define the curls. She is one stylish lady—somewhere between folk art and Modern Art. Here is another one of those bridges that we always talk about. Her papier mâché frame is 4 ¾” x 5 ½”. There is the tiniest bit of light spotting on the backing card. The card on the back of the frame identifies her as Ann Thomas, wife of William Boyes[?]. The inscription was written on the back in 1919 by “smp”—a nice later notation to remember the name of a family member! The frame hanger is one we don’t remember seeing before. It’s all part of a delightful package! Circa 1835.

#7195    $425