Portrait study of an Italian peasant girl

This drawing is a study for the central figure in Lewis's large 1840 watercolour exhibited at the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1841 (no.141) with the title Easter Day at Rome - Pilgrims and Peasants of the Neapolitan States awaiting the Benediction of the Pope at St Peter's (Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens). Lewis also made a smaller version of the watercolour, showing only the middle section of the composition (now Northampton Art Gallery). Other studies of the head of the same woman exist: a sketch at the Yale Center for British Art and a more finished study, similar to the one here, in a private collection (Sotheby’s 19 November 1992, lot 130). The same woman, shown full-length, in a red dress, is the subject of another watercolour (Sotheby’s 12 November 2013, lot 56).
We are grateful to Briony Llewellyn for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.