Portrait of a Lady c.1840; Follower of Richard Buckner.

Oil on canvas laid on board in fine gilded frame.

The attractive young sitter looks out in a composed and confident manner.
Her lace edged dress is decorated with a gem-set gold brooch and a rose, another one of which can just be seen at the edge of her bodice.

The artist, as yet unidentified, was clearly influenced by the work of the fashionable artist RICHARD BUCKNER (1812 - 1883).
Buckner first worked from a studio at his family home in Rumboldswhyke, near Chichester.
After a short spell in the army, he went to Rome where he studied under Giovanni Battista Canevari (1789-1876). He set up a studio there and quickly earned a reputation not only for his elegant portraits (e.g. Lady Charlotte Guest and her Daughter, priv. col., see Stewart and Cutten, p. 36) but also for his delicate watercolours of Italian peasants.
His work attracted the attention of important patrons including Queen Victoria and her husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort; Edward, Prince of Wales; Adelaide, Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen ( fl 1860s), and William Alexander, 11th Duke of Hamilton.
Maas considers him one of the most cultivated of Victorian portrait painters "He was one of the few portrait painters of the 19th century whose work could hold its own when hung in country houses alongside the work of Reynolds and Gainsborough".

SIZE: 38.5 x 33.5 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: English Private Collection.