Featured Portrait Painting

It’s been restretched so the signature is partly visible. Any guesses on the artist!

 

*pausing to wonder if the model posed in the nude while wearing a red hat*

I'll call the first four letters as L-A-R-O. If pushed, I'd say the fifth is N.

Beyond that...

 

or K ... larok? or R ... LAROR... hard to tell but looks like there might be a 6th letter around the corner. Laroke?

 

When I search US ancestry records for "laro*", there are 268,943 results.

I'm off on a different research project for now.

 

1930s given hat and hair. From what I can see of it, frame looks newer.

Debora

 

Someone I used to know had a sister in a mental hospital. He kept going on about the fact that she always wore a silly hat. That concerned him more than her not being well and possibly not happy.
Can't help thinking this woman was like the sister.

 

Can you untack and unfold the outside corner?

Seems possible she was wearing a bandeau cut off from reframing.

 

That would explain why she is looking so surprised.

Larob...?

 

My original thought is the sitter is not female - young Italian(?) boy, shirtless. The hat and the hair made me think that as much as the facial features.

 

Yes, this style I think:

Not necessarily with those flowers

 

I had not noticed that possible earring, but I think you're right about it being there.

 

Could be a boy .. the neck is rather thick for a female. Those eyes are very sad ... Joy.

 

I don’t think the canvas was cutoff.

 

Yes, i see if there was a bathing suit the artist left it out... But the painting and signature has been cropped by the later stretchers.

 

Best guess: Gypsy Boy (see https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/kpm-hand-painted-porcelain-plaque-gypsy-boy-105-c-d604953baa )

Gypsy boys did wear earrings, and girls would likely have worn much showier ones, and had longer hair.

Just my impression.

 

I always think that about the way they style Brenda blethyn in Vera.
They make her look like she's just escaped from somewhere, or on a day trip

 

I saw an interview with her, and she created that style herself to get into character. Well, if it helps her do the great job she's doing..... Love the series, and love Brenda.

 

Gypsy boys generally wore/wear actual rings, small, no decoration. Girls generally small ear pendants, until they are big (and rich) enough to wear big, long pendants, family investments.
This girl or woman doesn't look like a Gypsy to me though. Some do have fair skin and blue eyes, but Gypsies are taught to be self-confident, the best way to survive in an often hostile world.