Mrs Pyne of Aldwark

Bergère hats were traditionally worn during the mid-eighteenth century by older women and servant girls. Made of twisted straw and sometimes painted, the hats were typically lined with printed fabric and trimmed with ribbon. The characterful Mrs Pyne has chosen a colourful blue and gold fabric as the trimming for her bergère hat to compliment the curious white and blue rosettes on the sleeves of her wonderfully styled tan coat.

The sitter’s name appears on an old label on the backing paper of the frame as ‘Aldwark / Mrs Pyne’. Aldwark is the name of an historic street in the centre of York. It is also a village on the outskirts of the City. The graveyards in Aldwark and nearby Alne did not though reveal any headstones dedicated to the Pyne family so her story remains untraced.

Painted in oil on canvas laid down on a panel, the small portrait is housed in the original ebonised frame with a gilded inner border.