Collection Online
Portrait of a flower painter
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
76.2 × 63.9 cm
Place/s of Execution
England / Scotland
Accession Number
1250-3
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1922
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work

The identity of both the painter and subject of this charming portrait has remained elusive. It has at times been attributed to Francis Cotes, Henry Singleton and Johan Zoffany. The design of the table carpet on the right is very cIose to one that appears in a portrait by Zoffany of 1768. It has also been considered as a self-portrait by the unidentified painter who has paused while drawing the vase of flowers on the table. She holds a porte-crayon, a metal holder designed to take a crayon or chalk – the precursor of the modern graphite pencil. The porte-crayon was indispensable for artists in the eighteenth century.

Subjects (general)
Portraits
Subjects (specific)
armchairs artists (visual artists) backdrops dresses (garments) flower vases portcrayons table carpets women (female humans)