Beale (Mary, 1633-1699, follower of). Portrait of a young girl

Follower of Mary Beale (1633-1699). Portrait of a young girl, oil on canvas, trimmed, re-lined, and laid over board, half-length portrait of a young girl with auburn ringlets, wearing an orange and white gown embellished with jewels, a pearl necklace and pearl drop earrings, and a bejewelled pearl band in her hair, within a trompe l'oeil architectural cartouche, rubbed with some surface loss, 76 x 62.5cm (30 x 241/2 ins)

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The particularly English feature of the painted architectural frame recalls the work of Mary Beale, a copyist of Sir Peter Lely as well as an independent portraitist. Beale's portraits are often similarly enclosed by moulded cartouches, and Lely himself occasionally used the device. In Lely's case the frame would have been painted in later by a studio hand, whereas Mary Beale's sons were known to add the frame after the portrait had been painted.