Seated Lady in a Lace Collar, Biedermeier Lithograph Portrait, 1849
€ 165
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1849
Mapmaker / artist
Signed in the stone and dated 1849 (artist's signature not legible)
Publisher
Not named on the sheet
Technique
Lithograph
Coloring
Uncolored
Sheet size
32 × 24 cm (12.6 × 9.4 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14343-51
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Good condition for its age. Light toning with a few tiny spots to the margins and a faint crease near the lower left corner. The image is clean. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
A large and sensitive lithograph portrait of a lady of the Biedermeier years, seated in a wooden chair and looking out at the viewer with a gentle, composed expression. The drawing is signed in the stone at lower left within an oval flourish and dated 1849. The sitter is not named on the sheet.
She is shown three quarter length, turned slightly to the left, with her hair parted in the center and drawn down over the ears into clusters of ringlets, the fashion of the 1840s. A white lace trimmed collar is tied at the throat with a soft bow, and her close fitting dark dress of patterned silk has a pointed bodice, long sleeves gathered at the shoulders and lace cuffs at the wrists. Her hands rest loosely in her lap, a ring on one finger, and behind her rises the back of a turned chair with twisted uprights and ball finials.
The artist drew directly on the stone with the lithographic crayon, and the print keeps the softness of a chalk drawing. The face is modeled in delicate, even tone, the silk is rendered with a shimmer of light and dark in its woven pattern, and the background is suggested in loose diagonal strokes that fade into the paper. The large scale of the sheet and the quality of the drawing suggest that the portrait was commissioned privately, for the sitter's family and friends, rather than issued as a commercial print of a public figure.
Biedermeier portraits of this kind are collected today for the quiet dignity of the sitters, for the evidence of costume and hairdressing and for the skill of the lithographers who made them. This one would look especially fine framed with a wide cream mat in a bedroom, hallway or sitting room, alone or with a companion portrait of a gentleman of the same years.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
