FRANCESCO CAIRO | Portrait of a lady, bust length, with flowers on her hair

oil on panel, an octagon

The octagonal shaped panel is comprised of a single board stabilized on the reverse with two horizontal beams. The paint appears slight thinned on the background, as is normal with sketches, some of its original impasto appears to remain like with the flowers on the hair. Inspection under UV shows an uneven varnish and some scattered spots of retouches on the darker colors of the hair and perhaps the background. A few, more concentrated spots of retouches are scattered in the lower left and central left quadrant. Thinly applied inpainting is scattered on her face, with further small spots on her chest and ear. The painting can hang in its present state and is offered in a giltwood frame.
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Francesco Cairo, also known as 'Il Cavalière del Cairo,' was an Italian Baroque painter born in Milan. A similar female profile by Cairo, which also has her hand resting on her bosom with her index finger delicately lifted, is in Galleria arcivescovile, Milan (inv. no. 145).¹ Although both versions represent the sitter with a similar hairstyle of loose curls cascading down her left cheek until reaching her chest, the present lot has her pulled hair decorated with flowers at right. We are grateful to Dr. Francesco Frangi for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs. He dates this work circa 1650.

1. See F. Frangi, 'Francesco Cairo,' Turin 1988, p. 276, cat. no. 87, reproduced fig. 91.