Portrait of a Young Girl with a Pink Ribbon around Her Neck

This portrait of a young woman exhibits many similarities to the work of female artist Abiah Stanley Warren (1805-1863). First fully identified by Michael R. Payne and Suzanne Rudnick Payne, Warren was a schoolteacher in New Hampshire who is known to have painted several portraits in the years from 1836 to 1840 and possibly later. Characteristics of Warren’s work seen here include arched eyebrows, one continuous with the line of the nose, wide, almond-shaped eyes with heavy outline, an ovoid face with delicate chin and a gauzy lace pelerine (small cape) that sits slightly above the sitter’s shoulders. Similar details are seen in a portrait of a Lady with Hair Comb signed by the artist and dated 1837 (Michael R. Payne and Suzanne Rudnick Payne, “Painted by Abiah S. Warren,” Folk Art (Winter 2003/2004), pp. 68-73, for Lady with Hair Comb, see pp. 68, 70-71 and Sotheby’s, New York, 21 January 2017, lot 5099).