Portrait of a Woman

Dateca. 1770

Attributed to Ozias Humphry (1742-1810)

MediumWatercolor on ivory

DimensionsIvory Primary Support: 2 x 1 3/4in. (5.1 x 4.4cm); Oval Composition: 2 x 1 9/16in. (5.1 x 4cm); and Framed (together with 4 other miniatures, includ. top ornament): 8 7/16 x 8 9/16in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1985-293

DescriptionA miniature, unfinished, bust-length portrait of a woman, her body facing the viewer, her head turned 3/4 to the right, her gaze in line with her head.
When purchased at auction 27 March 1985, this image was group-framed with 1985-149, -289, -290, -291, and -292.
Label TextHumphry's biographer, George Williamson (1918), opined (pp. 77-78) that "the most pleasing miniatures that remain of Humphry's work are undoubtedly those which he never completed; his sketches on ivory being extraordinarily beautiful. In portraiture they must have been absolutely accurate, in colouring and composition they are full of charm, and they far exceed in intrinsic beauty his more elaborately finished works. He has delineated all that was necessary to form a portrait, and did we but know him from his unfinished works, his position in the art world would be of far higher importance than it is."
Certainly this sketchy, unfinished, quickly rendered image shows how successfully and economically Humphry could capture a sitter's salient features.
InscribedIn pencil on the reverse is "428". See Note 1.
ProvenanceProbably from the artist to his natural son (and godson), William Upcott (1799-1845); to his friend, Charles Hampden Turner; to various, now-unidentified owners; to David S. Lavender, CWF's vendor.