Unknown - Three Portraits

Around 1910
Oil Pastels
Size: 44x28.5cm each
Conditions: different conditions, overall good. Framed behind glass (one pane defective).

The history of the artist and the three pastels remains a mystery, but the artist displays a trained and skilled hand in portraiture.

Pastel drawing was a popular medium in the 1900s. The three portraits of an older man, a young woman, and a child are drawn in pastels and are similar in composition, as each pose is half-lit (half the face is in shadow). The older bearded man is portrayed in a blazer and shirt looking off to his right. The brunette young lady is depicted in a modern black polo neck and hoop earrings, and the blonde child was captured in a blue dress with a lace collar – both were drawn gazing at the viewer. Perhaps the portraits were the artist’s family members, or maybe he or she was commissioned to immortalise the people. What is most likely, they would have been drawn from life, and the artist produced an honest and modern portrayal of his or her sitters.