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| Portrait Andrea Soldi, 1740 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
In 1740, Andrea Soldi (1698-1771)(it is believed) painted this tender portrait of an unknown woman and child, seated on a settee. As is often the case, we can’t tell if the child is male or female. When this was painted, in fact, well until the 1920s, boys wore dresses until they were “breeched” (given their first pair of trousers). Similarly, the wearing of pink here (in the child’s ribbons and trimmings) does not indicate gender. Pink and blue had not been assigned to either sex until the early Twentieth Century.
I’d like to note that this work was formerly attributed to Joseph Highmore (1692-1780), however, in 2011 the painting was re-attributed by art historian Bendor Grosvenor to Andrea Soldi, a Florentine painter who arrived in London in 1736 and who was favored by Frederick, Prince of Wales.
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