Spencerian Portrait of a Woman with Folded Hands c. 1880s huge whimsy with creamy white painted tin

with creamy white painted tin faces inlaid over ebony wood

perhaps made from other crates

and a fantastically colored plum not yet quite right

(The form also immediately reminded me of Edward Weston's photographs of bell peppers

Spencerian Portrait of a Woman with Folded Hands c. 1880s huge whimsy with creamy white painted tinHoly moly, Im not sure Ive ever seen a more beautiful detail that the interlocking fingers of this womans hands, framed by these gorgeous banded cuffs and calligraphic swoops and swirls all around. Perfection. I personally really love the tension between the calligraphic perfection of her dress and arms and cloak and the slight awkwardness of her face, too, which shows a bit of a wider silhouette for her hairstyle in pencil and an earlier attempt at