Flyaway Curls

Dating to the last quarter of the 18th century, this miniature portrait depicts a young lady in a pale blue décolleté dress with a white underslip, her unpowdered curls tumbling over her shoulders and decorated with a white ribbon.

The portrait is housed in an appealing gilt metal filigree frame backed with mock tortoiseshell. An old brooch pin has been removed leaving a mark to the reverse side of the frame. The frame lacks a hanging ring but could be threaded with fine ribbon for an attractive display.

Writing in the Connoisseur in 1907, Dr George Williamson described the artist John Donaldson as ‘surely one of the oddest painters that ever lived’. From humble beginnings (his father made gloves) Donaldson drifted from painting china into portraiture winning early recognition and important prizes from the Society of Arts. After only a few years, however, he developed a fascination for chemistry and wasted his hard-earned money on failed experiments. He also published a volume of poetry that flopped. Indeed, ‘his eccentricities were most extraordinary’ and his politics most radical that he ‘made enemies in all directions’ and ‘gradually sank into deep poverty’.

And yet this attractive portrait is testament to a talent that, if only he hadn’t mixed business with politics but had concentrated his efforts in this direction only, would surely have guaranteed him a steady clientele and given him an excellent living.

Ivory Exemption Ref.: D15EGYM6