Featured 18thC Portrait of Lady (Saint?) With a Tambourine

To move away from the disappointment of my latest aquistion, here is an 18th century painting that I hadn't gotten around to photographing yet. I'm quite chuffed with her but she turned out far larger than I anticipated so I'm not sure where I can put her in a 30sqm apartement with one hook.

I don't know if she's anyone in particular with the halo? She's got a lot of grime and a bit of damage, seems like she was in an attic for a rather long time. I'd like to get her cleaned but I've heard those services are very expensive.

Would love your input on her!

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What you're reading as a halo appears to be a straw hat with plumes. A popular Georgian accessory.

Debora

 

Right! I did wonder that when I had it out for photos, but its so blurry I couldn't quite make it out. Thanks Debora

 

The fact that there are feathers behind the 'halo' is a bit of a clue.

I like the cheeky look in her eyes, she is clearly having fun playing the tambourine.
Slightly naive portraits like this were often painted by travelling painters.

 

Sort of looks like a tambourine, but that's an accessory more suited to a bacchante. It matches her costume so well, I'm wondering if it's not a fan.

 

I don't know of any fans shaped like a tambourine, and it is pretty big for a rigid fan/hand screen. She looks to be playing it with her right hand.

 

The instrument appears to have a handle which she's holding in her left hand.

Debora

 

I think it's a portrait of Anne Reynell,


.... one of the aunts of Emma Vickery

 

I think you may be right. Remarkable family resemblance.

Debora

 

They're out there, fancily dressed women who are neither maenads nor happy Sicilian peasants.

 

looks to me , like she's thinking of swatting the painter with a fancy frying pan.....

but it's been a rough morning here, so......

 

I hope not swatting with a frying pan kind of rough.

 

In my case, cast iron frying pan. Not a Griswold or Erie; Wal-mart junk would have been good enough for those yahoos.

 

Not a tambourine she is holding but a hand held face fire screen.

 

Could be but... Certainly appears a bit deep for that purpose.

Debora

 

Only now that you've mentioned this, I see the handle

 

I think Antiquefab has it. I knew fan wasn't quite right, but I did see the handle & wondered whether the perspective might be off & the object flatter than it first appears.

 

Looks like a tambourine to me, and the handle looks more like a tassel, just to steady it on her arm.

 

Exceptionally small & clunky looking jingly bits for a tambourine.