Random females - a selection of portraits

Portrait of a Young Lady in a Blue Dress, by Franz Schrotzberg, circa 1830s.

Anonymous Daguerreotype, circa 1840s-50s.

Mrs. Francine Clore, née Halphen, by Sir James Gunn, circa 1940.

Geertruida the Dubbelde, wife of Aert van Nes, by Bartholomeus van der Helst (background by Ludolf Bakhuysen), 1668.

Marie Caroline, duchesse de Berry, in the gardens of the Château de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, by Baron Gérard, 1820.

"The Blue Veil", by Glauco Cambon, 1907.

Joséphine Baker, by Baron George Hoyningen-Huene, 1929.

Celeste Coltellini, Madame Meuricoffre, by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1790s.

Doña María Antonia Gonzaga de Caracciolo, marquesa viuda de Villafranca, by Francisco Goya y Lucientes, circa 1795.

Irene von Meyendorff, circa 1941-44.

"Portrait in Red", by Adolfo Feragutti Visconti, 1915.

Duchess Charlotte Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as a child, by Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewski, 1791.

"Portrait d'une princesse de Bragance", Gillot Saint-Èvre, 1832.

Princess Egon von Ratibor, née Princess Leopoldine Lobkowicz, by Philip de László, 1899.

Minnie, the wife of Harold Alzana (seated behind), in costume for the "Gold Rush" tableau, 1949.

Mrs. Daniel DeSaussure Bacot, by Samuel F. B. Morse, 1820.

Anna Pavlovna of Russia, Queen of the Netherlands, by François Joseph Kinson, 1824.

 Marie Madeleine Maret, née Léjéas, duchesse de Bassano, by Baron Gérard, circa 1805-10.

Court Lady, by Diego Velázquez, circa 1635.

Marie Henriette, duchesse de Brabant, later Queen of the Belgians, Sir William Ross, 1853.

Rachel, Countess of Dudley, née Gurney, wife of the 2nd Earl, circa 1911. (The photograph is dated "1911", but may have been taken earlier.)

"Madame P.", by Eugène Fichel, 1857.

Madame de Serres, by Joseph Boze, 1787.

Portrait of an Unknown Lady, circa 1830s.

Unknown Woman, by Carl Timoleon von Neff, 1845.

Princess Maria Cristina Amelia Teresa of Naples and Sicily, later Queen of Sardinia, by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1790.

Unknown subject and artist, circa 1690-1700.

The Reventlow Sisters, Malvina and Hilda, by Heinrich August Georg Schiøtt, circa 1850.

Adriana Jacobusdr Hinlopen, wife of Johannes Wijbrants, by Lodewijk van der Helst, 1667.

"A Portrait of a Beauty", Qing Dynasty, Nineteenth Century.

Portrait of a Lady In a Blue Dress, by Anton Ebert, 1893.

Unknown, circa 1860. Courtesy Ralf de Jonge.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman, by Alexander Grigoryevich Varnek, circa 1810s-20s.

Self-portrait by Therese Concordia Mengs Maron, sister of Anton Raphael Mengs, and wife to another painter, Anton von Maron, circa 1744-45.

Les Yeux de Boyer - studio portraits of Charles Boyer

The photographs are by - as here - George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull and others. Most if not all are circa mid 1930s to early 1940s.

***

Then when a matinée idol has a certain insufficiency....

An early photograph, France, circa 1920s. His own hairline.

During his first days in Hollywood, circa 1930. When that hairline has receded.

An early version of new "frontage". A bit too much of a window's peak.

Another early toupée. (The usually fastidious publicity department at MGM has done nothing to disguise the hair lace.)

They soon got it worked out, but in real life, the fellow was often content to do without.

And there was always....