This charming French oil painting depicts an elegantly dressed young woman wearing a black gown enlivened by magnificent golden-yellow silk sleeves and oversized bows. Her powdered hair is swept upwards and decorated with pearls and red roses, while a narrow blue ribbon encircles her neck.

For all the splendour of her appearance, it's her expression that gives the portrait its appeal. Seated with her body turned slightly away, she looks back towards us with bright, watchful eyes and the faintest suggestion of a smile. There's something wonderfully self-possessed about her. Rather than presenting an aloof image of rank or ceremony, the unknown artist has preserved a sense of an individual personality.

Her clothing would have immediately communicated refinement and social standing. During the latter decades of the 18th century, fashionable dress among prosperous French women could be extraordinarily expressive, with silk, lace, ribbons, flowers and jewellery combined according to rapidly changing tastes. 

One can imagine our sitter inhabiting a comfortable and cultivated household in which appearances mattered. Dressing for dinners, visits, assemblies or evenings at the theatre formed part of a broader social world governed by conversation, manners and sociability. Fashionable women followed new styles closely, while portraits such as this allowed a particularly successful ensemble - and perhaps something of its wearer's character - to endure.

Here, the colour combination is especially effective. Against the subdued background and dark bodice, the yellow sleeves seem almost to glow, repeated in the enormous bow at her breast and again at her elbow. A cool flash of blue at her neck provides contrast, while the roses and pearls woven through her hair draw our attention upwards towards her face.

The portrait bears interesting stylistic similarities to works by the Parisian portraitist Guillaume Voiriot (1713-1799). Voiriot was a member of the Académie Royale and an established portraitist in Paris during this period. No firm attribution is proposed, however, and these characteristics were shared to varying degrees among several French portrait painters working during the 1760s and 1770s.

Ultimately, her identity may be lost, along with the name of the artist who painted her. Yet neither absence diminishes the portrait's considerable charm. More than 250 years later, she remains remarkably present - and seemingly just a little amused by whoever happens to be looking at her.

Held in a fine giltwood and gesso frame, with a stepped architectural profile, beaded mouldings and elegant pendant husk ornament.