The Saint Louis Art Museum is closed as we practice social distancing in the challenging time of COVID-19. Since you can’t come to the Museum, we are delighted to bring to you an extraordinary work of art that was acquired by the Museum in 1951. In 1974, this pastel was featured in the Museum’s exhibition “The Black Presence in Art” and, after several decades of being in storage, this stunning painting made its return once again in the gallery in March. Portrait of a Woman was on view only a few weeks before the Museum’s temporary closure. This portrait is at the center of a 100-year art mystery.
Works of art on view in the Museum have a label that identifies the artist, the date the artwork was created, and often the title will give clues about the subject or location. For this work of art, much of this information is not known. The Museum dates the portrait to the late 18th or early 19th century, however, specific a date is unknown. The portrait is created with soft pastel colors depicting a lovely young woman seated before a light blue background. Her body is oriented to the right of the composition, but her face is turned slightly towards the viewer, revealing a warm expression. Her head is covered with a light-colored turban with sheer patterned material on top. She wears a pair of small gold earrings, a pearl choker necklace, and a peach-colored dress with an embellished scoop neckline.
Who is the artist and who is the woman? A quick google image search of this portrait gathered more than 5 billion results, including Pinterest pins, Tumblr posts, and many art history blogs. Despite its incredible popularity, there is no verifiable evidence as to the artist or name of the woman. In many of the search results, this work has been attributed to artist Jean Etienne Liotard due to the time period and similarities in style, but more recent research debunks this attribution so the artist is unknown.
A scholar proposed to the Museum that the woman in the portrait may be British heiress Dido Elizabeth Belle. Belle has come up in many artworld conversations after she was identified as a subject in an 18th century double portrait with Lady Elizabeth Murry, which now hangs in the Scone Palace in Perth, Australia. In 2013, a film was released entitled Belle that shares the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle. Unfortunately, when more information about Belle was revealed, it has been determined that Belle is not the unknown woman in our portrait.
Close looking can be a critical skill when answering questions about artworks. Clothing can give very valuable clues and this woman’s head covering could be noteworthy. Headwraps have varying significance to many different cultures and can be worn in a way unique to that culture. One Museum consultant believes that the woman’s particular head wrapping could have a Caribbean origin.
Another clue can be the medium and materials of a work of art. The Museum’s conservation team was able to view a watermark on the paper. An expert on watermarks and paper believes that the paper may have been manufactured by a Dutch paper maker, which could be important in establishing the location in which the painting was created.
The Museum certainly has more questions than answers about this spectacular artwork. We invite you to visit slam.org/YoungWoman to see our mystery painting, Portrait of Young Woman.
