Likeness of a Girl
by AMERLING, Friedrich von, Oil on canvas, 64 x 51 cm
From the early 1830s to approximately 1850 Amerling was Vienna’s most celebrated portraitist. A likeness, almost identical to this portrait and entitled Modest Susanna, was executed in 1837.
The portrait represents an example of one of Amerling’s favourite compositional schemata to position the bare-backed sitter, turned away from the beholder. Effective highlights lend a soft gleam to the young face and betray the influence of Thomas Lawrence’s art of portraiture.