Portrait of a Girl, c. 1860

Johann Baptist Reiter (1813–1890) immortalized a hitherto unidentified young woman in a bust portrait with his oil painting Portrait of a Girl. The work shows her against a dark background, wearing dark clothes, and looking abruptly at the beholder with a calm expression. This makes the overall first impression rather austere. On closer inspection, however, the reflections of light in her eyes and her flushed cheeks give her a more animated look. Shifted from the central axis slightly to the left, her head is irregularly surrounded by a delicate white lacy veil which sets the pale face with the dark-brown curls apart from the dark background. The knot of the veil in front of the girl’s neck, executed with animated brushstrokes, appears unsettled and provides an antithesis to the centrally positioned broach holding the cleavage of her dress together. This combination of reticence and liveliness is characteristic for Reiter’s portraits of girls created around 1860.

MK, 2021