Painted lace

 

I saw this self portrait of Rolinda Sharples with her mother at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. I like the way she has painted the lace to emphasise its delicate ethereal frothy quality, but it’s a shame we can’t see it in more detail. The painting is dated 1818 and both women are wearing a good amount of lace. Rolinda was an oil painter and also produced pastel portraits. Also on show was a painting of ‘The cloakroom at the Clifton Assembly Rooms’ showing the well-to-do about to leave at the end of their evening’s entertainment. Each face can be clearly distinguished and the characters seem to come straight out of a Jane Austen novel – there are soldiers, well dressed young men, flirtatious young women and elderly chaperones. All are beautifully dressed in their evening clothes, which seem suitable for the occasion, but I’m puzzled by Rolinda’s choice of clothes for her self portrait which shows her painting at her easel in what appears to be a fine lace-trimmed gown.