Anon. Portrait of a Seated Lady with Book

An original c.1830s oil painting Portrait of a Seated Lady with Book.

A handsome early Victorian three-quarter length portrait of the Romantic period. This is one of a pair of portraits of a man and woman that we have for sale, presumably husband and wife (see JZ-452 for her male counterpart).

The lady's dress dates the painting to around the 1830s, the pelerine lace collar indicative of a demure day dress and her lace bonnet adorned with flowers. The features of the sitter are delicately painted and the lace details finely picked out in white highlights.

Interestingly, the pair of portraits present the man and woman in similar poses, both seated and holding a book. Although women's literacy saw a steep increase in the 19th century and reading was a popular pastime for genteel women, there were strict conventions about the kinds of books that were suitable for women, largely limited to the spheres of moralising and devotional texts and books on household improvement. Whilst women at this time may be represented in portraiture holding such books, there were a host of other objects to pose with that better signified femininity. The understated mirroring of poses in the portrait pair suggests a degree of equivalence that gives the paintings an additional elegance to the modern eye.

Incidentally, the woman has a look not dissimilar to Mary Shelley, and the male could be a dashing Lord Byron, nods to a fashionable Romantic ideal of the day.

Presented in a gilt wood frame with linen liner. Image size: 39.5 x 34.5cm. Frame size: 49 x 44cm.