The Beaded Necklace

John Field has successfully captured the youthful sophistication of this teenage girl with her fashionably cropped hair. She has chosen a beaded necklace (probably pearls) and little drop earrings to go with her high-waisted dress with its frilled neckline.

The silhouette is painted on plaster and is unusual both for its rectangular shape and for the larger than usual papier-mâché frame with its ormolu surround and leaf hanger that is all original to the piece. The silhouette has a small spot of paint loss on her shoulder but is otherwise in fine condition. The gilt metal mount has dulled in colour. The frame is backed with the Miers’ studio label, no. 12.

John Field was taken on as an assistant to work alongside John Miers in his London studio on the Strand. Whereas John Miers always painted profiles in plain black without embellishment, John Field was masterful at gilding.