Profile Portrait of a Woman with Elaborate Embellishment

Attributed to the
RED BOOK ARTIST

Probably Massachusetts or New York, ca. 1830.
Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper, with hollow-cut head backed by black paper or silk. The woman is shown in ¾ length profile, with black dress.

This portrait has characteristics similar to the "Red Book Artist" as pictured in the exhibition catalog “A Loving Likeness: American Folk Portraits of the Nineteenth Century” The Gallery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, 1992.

The sitter holds a red book, faces right, has an overly long thumb resting on the book, the hands are done with opaque white paint, her non-book hand rests on her hip, and is hollow cut with watercolor body. Elaborate embellishments include a colorful reticule, belt and buckle, a bold collar, lace covering her shoulders, and the RARE APPLICATION OF POLYCHROME PAPER RIBBONS. Presented in a period gilt frame of about 5 inches x 4 1/8. Colors still strong, with minor toning and foxing and paper wrinkling, and tiny tears.

Just acquired from a private Northeast collection where it has been since the 1960’s.