This is one of two tiny little folk watercolor portraits of ladies who love their outlandish hats. In the early decades of the 19th century, women wore hats every time they left the house and they wore bonnets indoors. Milliners embellished hats with flowers, feathers and ribbons. The two ladies in these tiny folk portraits wear hats heavily adorned with flowers. They have so many flowers on their hats that one might think they were wearing flower pots! These paintings may have been the musings of a young lady practicing her art as privileged young woman did to pass their days and show friends and suitors how well-bred and educated they were. Perhaps, however, these profiles were the musings of a milliner designing new hats to make. I love for little pieces of art to tell me stories and these two tell lots of stories.

This lady’s necklace and the center of her hat bow was painted with a bit of gold foil added to the paint. Most of the foil has apparently fallen out but you can see bits of shine in the enlarged photos. Both are painted on laid paper which was being repurposed from earlier use. On the back of this little lady is a pencil sketch of either Old Man Winter or a beast that seems lion with a man’s face. (I love to find things hiding behind framed art! There is a paper tear at about 9 o’clock but it is held tightly closed in the frame. I only noticed it when looking at the enlarged photos. Framed in a period gilt frame (or frame liner) that measures 4 3/8” x 5 ¼”. Sold separately or together.

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