An Irish Colleen

To sit for her portrait, this lady has chosen to wear her frothiest cap of white lace trimmed with eye-catching blue ribbon and with a small gold pin fastened to the brim. Her dress is contrastingly sombre though fashionable with its very wide sleeves and draped bodice. To lift it, she has tucked a colourful posy of rosebuds and forget-me-nots into her waistband and has pinned a second gold brooch to her corsage.

Watercolour on card, the portrait is signed ‘J. Moreau’ and set in a nicely figured bird’s eye maple frame of flat profile.

John Moreau entered the Dublin Society Schools in 1799. Primarily known as a landscape artist, he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1810 and later at the Royal Hibernian Society where he exhibited eight miniatures.