Technical Notes
The support is a tangentially cut panel of mahogany. The panel is scored in a twill pattern that runs from the bottom left to the top right. The back of the panel is coated with a dull grayish yellow paint. A split in the panel, 22.2 centimeters from the top left corner, extends 10.1 centimeters from the top edge. A wooden brace was glued to the back of the split before the painting entered the museum’s collection.

The ground is gray, evenly applied, and of a moderate thickness that does not entirely obscure the twill scoring. The gray ground partially shows through the shadow areas around the eyes, nose, and mouth.

In general, the paint is thinly applied with slight impasto in the highlights. A loosely painted sketch of the head and body was done first and then developed with thinly applied, overlapping brushstrokes of opaque paint. The white neck cloth was initially laid in with broad applications of white and gray paint. Shapes and details were later developed wet-on-dry with dashing strokes of dark gray for the shadows and opaque white for the highlights. The hair was first thinly painted with brown, then left in reserve while the face was developed. Light and dark brushstrokes used to further define the hair were later applied wet-on-dry and overlap paint used for the face and the background, indicating that finishing touches to the hair were added after the face and background were largely completed. There are also skips in the paint layer where the paint does not extend down into the twill pattern.

The painting is largely in good condition, with a minimal amount of age cracks throughout the paint layer. However, three small scratches are evident at the center of the sitter’s hairline along the forehead. Some fading of the gray-green background is evident; the area protected by the frame rabbet is darker and richer in color. Some very small dark spots, mostly found in the chin and mouth areas, appear under microscopic examination as pitting and bits of undissolved resin within the paint layer.

The painting appears to have a synthetic resin varnish that is evenly applied but no longer completely saturates the dark areas. The section surrounding the split at the top of the panel is especially dull.

Frame Notes
The frame consists of a gilded softwood molding of a two-piece construction; the back pieces have butt-end joins at the corners, and the top pieces have mitered corner joins. The main body of the frame is water gilded. A strip of applied carved-wood ornament in the central wide scoop of the frame alternates between oil gilding on the more heavily carved portions and water gilding on the smoother portions. The sight edge is stepped and rises to a bead. This is followed by a wide central cove, with a strip of applied carved-wood ornament, that rises to a quarter-round outer edge. The back panel is finished with matte yellow paint; the rest of the frame has red bole under the gilded surfaces.