Long Pink Gloves

I have unpacked the Gloves … their colour is light & pretty

So writes Jane Austen in 1798 in a letter to her sister Cassandra. Close inspection of this portrait from the same period reveals that this spirited-looking lady is wearing similarly ‘light & pretty’ gloves in spotted pink lace that extend right up to her sleeve. Her lightweight dress is neo-classical in style with its short waist and mancherons topping the narrow sleeves as was typical of Regency fashion. Her dark hair is upswept and held in place with a braided bandeau with short curls framing her face.

The portrait is traditionally understood to be signed within though the frame has not been opened. It is presented in the original gold-plated frame that is glazed reverse to show brown plaited hair with the sitter’s initials MAB in seed pearls on a blue glass plaque (a few loose pearls).

Scottish-born, Alexander Gallaway began his career as a miniaturist in Glasgow working during the 1790s in partnership with a Mr Williams, a landscape artist. During the early 1800s he moved east to Edinburgh where he would have hoped to attract a wider and more prosperous clientele. He exhibited at the Society of Artists in Edinburgh.

Ivory Exemption Ref.: DBPWWHW6