Lady in a White Dress with Blue Trimmings

Bossi’s portrait of a lady in a white chemise dress with blue trimmings on the sleeves, bodice and shoulders impresses with its vivid and unaffected immediacy. The young lady is looking directly at the observer; her face seems not to have been beautified and is very natural. This effect is underlined by the painter’s technique of applying the colours in tiny dots, thus giving the sitter’s face vividness and warm colouring. Bossi’s technique is characterized by the meticulous reproduction of the illuminated and the shaded parts, e.g. in the face and in the areas of neck and shoulder which are turned away from the observer.¹ However, in this portrait the artist uses the contrast between bright and dark colours to emphasize the sitter’s body contours rather than to characterize her face.
J. S. O.