Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this 17th Century Portrait Painting to the 17th Century.
Our portrait captures superbly the ostensibly modest yet seductive character of the sitter..
It is a good example of the way that Dahl and his Circle eloquently depicted aristocratic women.
Dahl's works are frequently distinguished by a greater attention to the character of the sitter than those of his rivals, and he particularly allowed a softer aspect to the surfaces of his sitter's costume and drapery. His colours are silvered and luminous, and there is a great charm and sensitivity in the overall expression of the sitter. In this example, the drapery and sitter's turned head impact a subtle sense of movement. She wears the headcloth often seen in Dahl's portraits at this period; her gown is fashionably revealing, the supposedly modest drape of diaphanous material over her decolletage conceals little.
MICHAEL DAHL (1659-1743) was a painter of exceptional talent and regarded as the only really serious rival to Sir Godfrey Kneller, for royal patronage, during the years 1690-1714. Dahl's patterns were undoubtedly indebted to the fashion set by Kneller, but Dahl had a lighter palette, and his brushwork applied in shorter and more careful strokes.
His self portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery and he is famed for having painted a series of wonderful female portraits for the Duke of Somerset, now at Petworth House, and known as the Petworth Beauties.
Dahl's portraits of members of the royal family hang at Kensington Palace and Windsor and other examples of his work can be found at the Tate and National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
SIZE: 37.5 x 32.25 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: Old private collection in south Herefordshire. Deceased estate.
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this 17th Century Portrait Painting to the 17th Century.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Portrait of a Lady C.1695; Circle of Michael Dahl.
