Alexei Harlamoff

Private Collection, Argentina

Unlined. Recently cleaned and colors are bright and fresh. Under UV: Dots of inpainting at right eye and in lips.
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Like his contemporary William Bouguereau, by the late nineteenth century Harlamoff had garnered international acclaim for his academic figure paintings, and in particular his portraits of young girls. While some of the artist’s models were portrayed at the same age despite the passage of years, others grew from childhood to adolescence from one canvas to the next. The young model of the present work also appears at an older age in a similar costume and pose in Girl in Red (State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, see: Olga Sugrobova-Roth and Eckart Ligenauber, Alexi Harlamoff: catalogue raisonné, Düsseldorf, 2007, no. 126). In both works the artist’s expressive brushwork and understanding of color captures the spirit of the model, while subtle changes to composition and figural modeling age the girl between the two works.  The model remains easily recognizable as her distinctive blue-grey eyes look out at the viewer, her beaded necklace with its coral and silver pendants remain a treasured object.