Mother with Child

This portrait of the lady with a flower basket adorned the lid of a box made in 1788. The bottom part of the box shows a portrait of a mother and child which was created a few years later. The chronological difference is clearly visible in the ladies’ hairstyles: the portrait painted during the reign of Louis XVI shows a lady in a grey powdered, voluminously curly wig with tresses falling about her shoulders. However, the second portrait presents a lady with plain, unpowdered, curly hair in a natural parting, with a few curls slightly covering her forehead.
The English artist Anna Wetherill¹ was strongly influenced by French miniature painting in her style and technique. The sitters’ clothes and hair as well as the background are painted in dull gouache colours, and their faces bear a pleasant impression rather than showing individual features. The posture corresponds to the French taste, too, and is especially common in Hénard’s and Campana’s works.
B. P.