Corchon y Diaque, Woman in a Wine-Red Silk Cap, Signed and Dedicated Oil on Panel, Late 19th Century, Carved Giltwood Frame

The cap sits high on the head, its edge cutting straight across the hair, and it is the only colour in the panel. Everything else is grey, black, or the flesh of a face turned down and away.

Oil on panel, 13 3/4 x 9 inches (35 x 23 cm), 16 x 11 inches (41 x 28 cm) framed. Inscribed and signed in ink upper right, a dedication to N. Borniche followed by the signature. French, late nineteenth century, in a carved giltwood frame.

She is shown in three quarter profile, looking down and to her left, the coil of hair falling behind the neck to the shoulder. A white pleated shirt front rises to the throat and falls in a long V over the chest inside a black jacket, its border laid on in thick white that stands proud of the surface, with a line of stitching drawn across the linen in small dark marks. The flesh is built in fine crossed strokes of a dry brush, the colour of the cheek dropped in over them rather than blended, and the mouth is a single stroke of red. Only the silk and the white front carry any real body of paint. Elsewhere the paint is thin enough that the grain of the wood reads through the grey ground.

Good condition. The panel is sound, held by four turn buttons. A vertical line of loss runs down through the cap and into the hair, with a shorter parallel line beside it. Fine surface scratches in the black of the jacket, and the shadow under the chin has darkened with age.