This elegant early 18th-century oil painting by French master portraitist Nicolas Fouché (1653-1733) depicts a young lady representing an allegory of Flora, the goddess of flowers and Spring. It exemplifies the refined grace and allegorical charm that characterised the Régence period. The sitter, portrayed half-length and turned slightly toward the viewer, is adorned in a sumptuous blue gown with gold lacing - its sleeves of translucent silk tied with soft pink ribbons. A rose-pink sash falls across her arm, while matching flowers adorn her powdered hair. She appears both real and idealised, against a wooded backdrop bathed in the warm light of evening. There''s a sculptural quality to her form, akin to polychromed marble. She''s a vision suspended between portraiture and myth.Fouché’s treatment of costume - neither courtly nor antique - was typical of early eighteenth-century allegorical portraiture, in which fashionable women were recast as goddesses or virtues. The symbolism...