Head of a Young Girlca. 1900
The artist chose to place this unknown young lady against an “Oriental” background of tall grass, birds, and a large setting sun. More about this work
About this work
The artist chose to place this unknown young lady against an “Oriental” background of tall grass, birds, and a large setting sun. The sitter’s vast puffed sleeves were known as gigot or leg-of-mutton sleeves, which grew to fantastic proportions during the last decade of the nineteenth century.
Text from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
How it was made
- Watercolour on ivory
- Thin sheets of ivory gave watercolour a luminous, skin-like glow, which made them the favourite support for portrait miniatures from the early 1700s.
- Watercolour
- Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.
Lucia Fairchild Fuller
born Boston, MA 1870-died Madison, WI 1924
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1929.6.46
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Type
- Painting-Miniature
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
Report this work
Close in colour
