Society Portrait, signed and dated 1938

Somehow portraits of women by women artists of the early twentieth century have a certain historical frisson. When this was painted in 1938, the Great War had been over for two decades and the societal changes it wrought had led to political and social freedoms that would have been unthinkable to many women at the turn of the century. Elsa would have known a world of corsets and stays in 1880s Boston, a lifetime away from the simple black evening dress of this confident young sitter. The simplicity of the clothes and the assurity of her poise and gaze convey her wealth and social status, an ensemble that wouldn’t look out of place in a cocktail bar today. Perhaps minus the fur. The fabulous pendant cross is tantalizing, as such an important jewel must be recognizable to some family historian somewhere and so unlocking the sitter’s identity. Until then she remains an anonymous sitter, but a fabulous decorative portrait of the 1930s that would perfect any interior of the period.