The Talbot Girls

This is a rare opportunity to acquire a well-provenanced pair of silhouettes painted on glass by Richard Jorden. The girls are sisters from the Talbot family though their Christian names are now lost to history. Both girls have long hair falling in soft curls and are wearing low cut dresses.

The silhouettes are reverse painted on flat glass with an unusual red verre eglomise border. They are each backed with a second piece of glass coated with gesso and are housed in the original pressed brass fronted frames.

The red painted border on both silhouettes has patches of paint loss but the profiles themselves remain in excellent condition. The frames have old worm holes on the sides.

Little is known about the life and career of Richard Jorden who painted silhouettes for just a short span of time between 1779 and about 1785 alongside his brother Walter. They are known to have worked in Wales (Talbot is a Welsh name) as well as London and Durham.