Ribbon in her hair

This demure young lady with her hair in a banging chignon under a veiled head dress secured with a ribbon bow has been painted on a plaster base by Mrs Mary Lightfoot during the 1790s.

Sadly we don’t know the lady’s name. The profile is housed in the original brass-faced frame (slightly tarnished with age) backed with the artist’s trade label.

It was an eight-month stay by John Miers at her house in Liverpool in 1785 that prompted Mary Lightfoot (ca 1750-1837) to begin painting silhouettes. Her artistic career was, however, short-lived and her work failed to reach the standard of her mentor.