Sold....portrait of a Young Lady C.1730; Attributed to Joseph Highmore

Oil on canvas in early 19th c. gilt frame.

This fine portait of a young woman has a real Baroque swagger to it; the lady seems almost to be moving across the canvas, her silken robe billowing behind her.

The material of her gown and robe have the expensive-looking rather metallic sheen associated with Highmore's treatment of material.

The sitter looks directly at the viewer with confidence and candour.

The veins of her left hand can be seen faintly shown in blue; at this period, and earlier, for a woman to have a semi-translucent skin and bue veins showing was considered very attractive and well bred...hence the expression 'blue-blood' for members of the aristocracy.

JOSEPH HIGHMORE (1692 - 1780) was born in London, on June 13th 1692. He was the third son of Edward and Mary (Tull) Highmore. His father was a coal merchant in Thames Street. He was articled as clerk to an attorney in 1707, but his ambition was always to paint, and he studied for two years at the academy founded by Sir Godfrey Kneller in Great Queen Street.

Beginning as a professional portrait painter in 1715, he gained clients from the City merchants who approved of what they perceived to be his ability to convey likeness and character without ostentation. He married in 1716, and a move in 1723 to a house in Lincoln's Inn Field marked his growing business and prosperity.

By the 1730s his style had become more polished and sophisticated.

Highmore's contribution to a folio of engravings relating to the Order of the Bath and its ceremonies obtained him a number of commissions from the Knights of the Order.

His series of paintings in illustration of Samuel Richardson's novel "Pamela" and small, full-length, single and group portraits of the same period and style, were his principal achievement of the 1740s. As a result of the paintings, Highmore became a close friend of Richardson, and not only painted illustrations for Richardson's other novels, but also portrayed the novelist himself.

Highmore retired as a painter in 1761 and left London to live with his family at Canterbury in 1762. He died at Canterbury, on March 3rd, 1780.

SIZE:45 x 36.75 inches inc. frame.

PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Southern England.