Portrait of a Woman

1868

Felice Beato

Associated Names
Felice Beato

Artist, British, born Venice, 1832 - 1909

The image features a woman standing. She is angled slightly to the left with her head turned slightly to the right, looking ahead. The woman has an oval face, soft features, a traditional hairstyle, and is wearing a kimono with a dark outer layer and a floral inner layer near the collar. She has an obi tied around her waist with a knot at the back featuring a landscape design. The woman is barefoot on woven flooring, with a neutral background and a soft, circular vignette effect around the edges.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    albumen silver print with applied color

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Michael and Jane Wilson

  • Dimensions

    image (oval): 23.5 × 17 cm (9 1/4 × 6 11/16 in.)
    sheet: 25.5 × 21.5 cm (10 1/16 × 8 7/16 in.)
    mount: 49.5 × 35 cm (19 1/2 × 13 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2012.137.87

  • Volume Title

    Views of Japan

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Michael and Jane Wilson, Wilson Centre for Photography, London, acquired 1991; gift to NGA, 2012.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

by unknown hand, top center in graphite: 19B 09; upper center in graphite: 39; lower right in graphite: 91.4417; lower right in graphite: A; on verso, by unknown hand, upper center in graphite: 40; center in typeset print on paper label: MENDICANT NUN. / According to Kaempfer, these nuns live under the protection of the nunneries at Kamakura and Kioto; and / pay to them a certain sum every year of what they get by begging, as an acknowledgment of their authority. / In his opinion they were much the handsomest girls her saw in Japan. / The daughters of poor peasants, if they be handsome and agreeable, apply for and easily obtain the privilege of begging in the habit of nuns, knowing that beauty is one of the most persuasive inducements to generosity. / The begging mountain priests frequently incorporate their own daughters with this religious order, and take / their wives from among them. / Mendicant nuns usually wear a large hat made of straw or plaited bamboo, to cover their faces and to shelter them also from the heat of the sun.
[This label describes NGA object 2012.137.88. There is no matching descriptive label for this photograph in the NGA collection.]

Wikidata ID

Q64147543

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