Antique Portrait of a Young Woman in Tyrolean Dress

Antique Portrait of a Young Woman in Tyrolean Dress

Austrian or German School | 19th Century

A young woman turns out of a dark ground in a broad green felt hat with a spray of flowers pinned at the brim, a red wool shawl crossed over a white blouse and dark bodice. She is caught mid-glance rather than posed, and the painter has given her a faint, unreadable half-smile that does a great deal of work at this scale.

The costume is the giveaway. The broad green hat and crossed red fichu belong to the Alpine Trachten of the Tyrol, which nineteenth-century painters working out of Munich and Innsbruck turned into an entire genre. Pictures of this kind were made for people who wanted the mountains without the walk, and the good ones are painted with real attention. This is a good one. Look at the sleeve, where the white is dragged on wet in single loaded strokes, or at the shawl, which carries three distinct temperatures of the same red.

Signed, though the signature does not resolve legibly. The reverse is sealed with old paper and strips of French newspaper laid over the frame edges, so the picture spent a long stretch of its life in France, whatever mountain it started on.

The frame is period gilt and gesso, cast with a running foliate ornament, and honestly worn: the gilding is rubbed through to the ground in places, with small losses along the mouldings. It suits the picture rather better than a restored one would.

Details

• Subject: Young woman in Tyrolean costume
• Medium: Oil on board
• Signature: Signed
• Date: 19th century
• Dimensions: 11.75 in x 10.75 in framed
• Frame: Period gilt gesso with cast foliate ornament, with wear and small losses