Portrait of Miss Moffat  1826

Stories of women, jewels, and pearls, popular when this painting was first exhibited in 1826 in London, help to explain this enigmatic portrait. Pearls were especially associated with purity; in classical myth, they were believed to be the droplets of water that Venus, the goddess of love, shook from herself when she was born out of the sea. Thinking of ancient Rome, a vie...