Old Lady with a Small Dog

Giuseppe Baldrighi (1723-1803)
18th century, Oil on canvas

Baldrighi was an accomplished, talented, and cultured artist who chose Parma as his home after an apprenticeship and early career in Naples, Florence, and Bologna. He became the favourite portrait painter of Duke Philip of Bourbon, who wanted him in Parma during the most glorious years of the minister Guillaume Du Tillot. Du Tillot appreciated Baldrighi’s talent and sent him to Paris to refine his training and grow culturally. From 1752 to 1756, Baldrighi lived in Paris, which was also very advanced in the field of portraiture, and after having returned to his chosen home of Parma, he specialised in the genre, producing numerous official and unofficial portraits of great quality. This work attests to his talent and his choice of this genre, and we may understand why the court of Parma, and du Tillot in particular, favoured him. The image of the unknown lady, with her elegant bright pink satin dress, stands out against a dark background, as do the diamond cross around her neck, her diamond earring and the extraordinary architectural complexity of her headpiece. The small dog, a companion to the elderly woman in her loneliness, stares out at the viewer; the woman's intense gaze and expression, in contrast, are of an eerie gravity.