Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1700s.
She wears none of the fashionable accoutrements of her rank...the usual fashionable pearl ear pendants and necklace are absent.
She looks thoughtfully out at the viewer, unlike the swagger and confidence depicted in most portraits of the period here Dahl suggests an innocence and vulnerability, with the wistfully turned head imparting a sense of movement.
In terms of both draughtmanship and pose Dahl’s female portraits are noticeably softer and gentler than Kneller’s, and thus allow for a greater versatility in the expression of feminine beauty. Dahl’s works are frequently distinguished by a harder and more rigorous 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.
MICHAEL DAHL (1659 - 1743).
Dahl 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, 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: 38 x 33 inches including frame.
PROVENANCE: by descent through the family to an elderly lady (who wished to remain anonymous) now moving from a large house. This portrait, dirty and covered in discoloured varnish, was in an unused corridor for many years.
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1700s.
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.1700, by Michael Dahl.
