The Purple Surcoat

Profile portraiture, long popularised on coins, was also frequently adopted by miniature painters, as exemplified by this well-painted portrait of a young lady. With her brown curls swept up and secured with a comb, she is wearing a blue dress with a square neckline trimmed with white lace under a purple surcoat edged with fur.

The portrait is set in a later silver gilt frame that is hallmarked for 1908. The frame is also glazed on the reverse to reveal a lock of the lady’s hair laid on cream silk that may well have been a remnant of fabric from one of her dresses.