Lady in Elizabethan dress

Charles Samuel Keene 1823 - 1891

Summary

This print seems to have been deliberately left to appear sketchy and unfinished as there are no defined boundaries and in the top right hand corner there is a woman's head which has been left incomplete without any other details from the mouth downwards. However, the central figure, a woman dressed in Elizabethan costume seen reclining on a chair, is rendered with a lot of detail. Her dress in particular is finely rendered with a lot of care given to showing the different textures of the dress as it splits open to reveal the underskirts and to show the fall of the fabric, the different folds and creases. She is depicted leaning back against the cushions behind her, facing towards the viewer, but her gaze is downcast and with her right hand she brushes tears away with a handkerchief. The sadness of the scene is further emphasised through the dark shadows surrounding her suggesting that the room she is in is poorly lit. From the print series 'Twenty-one Etchings' by Charles S. Keene. Printed by Frederick Goulding (1842–1909) and published by Astolat Press (Guildford, Surrey).