{"product_id":"hand-painted-plaster-relief-portrait-of-a-young-girl-in-profile-combed-ground-and-painted-vignette-in-an-old-black-moulded-frame","title":"Vintage Hand-Painted Plaster Relief Portrait Plaque, c. 1930–1955","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA girl's head and shoulders in profile, modelled in plaster so that she stands out from the panel, and then painted by hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eShe faces right with her eyes closed. Her hair is a single dark mass swept back from the forehead and falling behind the shoulder, worked over in fine brushed strands so it reads as hair rather than a shape. Her top is a warm orange-red, and the folds in it are painted rather than modelled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe modelling in the face is the part worth looking at. The brow, the cheek, the jaw and the ear are all built up in relief, and the painting follows the form rather than sitting flat on it — there is real shading under the cheekbone and along the neck. The eyebrow, the lashes and the line of the mouth are drawn in with a fine brush.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe ground she sits against is not smooth. Fine parallel lines have been combed into the surface with a toothed tool, radiating outward around the head, and a soft brown vignette has been painted over the top of them so the corners darken and the figure is pushed forward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe panel sits in a moulded wooden frame finished in black, worn through to bare wood along the edges and at the corners.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe reverse is closed with a pale green patterned backing paper, tacked down with small brads, and hung on twisted wire between two screw eyes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eLift the backing and the construction answers the first question anybody should ask about a plaster plaque: was this made by the thousand, or was it not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA mass-produced chalkware plaque comes out of a mould with a clean flat back, a moulded hanging hole and a uniform edge. This one has none of that. The back is an irregular hand-finished slab, thick and uneven, with the soft swell of the figure showing through from the front and a rough broken edge all round. It was worked by hand and then set into a frame, not cast, trimmed and boxed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe combed ground says the same thing. Those fine parallel striations were drawn into the plaster while it was still soft, by hand, with a toothed tool, and they fan out around the head rather than running in a regular grid. It is a decision somebody made at the bench, and it does real work: it breaks up the light behind the figure and stops the background reading as a blank slab.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eRelief portraiture is one of the oldest formats there is — the profile bust in low relief runs from Roman cameos through Renaissance plaquettes to the plaster medallions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It survives because it does something neither painting nor sculpture manages on its own: it hangs flat on a wall like a picture, but it catches raking light and changes through the day like a carving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThere is no signature anywhere on the face of the panel, and no mark, stamp or label on the frame or the backing paper. That is not evidence of a recent date — unsigned was the ordinary condition of decorative plaster — so the date has to come from the framing instead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe backing is a tinted green paper held down by small round-head tacks driven in by hand at irregular intervals. Trade framing moved to the pneumatic stapler through the 1950s, and to plain brown kraft at about the same time, so a hand-tacked tinted backing puts this frame before that change. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1930–1955: a hand-worked painted plaster relief portrait in its period frame, unattributed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePainted plaster relief portrait panel in a moulded wooden frame\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 9 in tall by 6½ in wide, framed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSubject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHead and shoulders of a young girl in profile, facing right with eyes closed, dark hair swept back, wearing an orange-red garment\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTechnique\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFigure modelled in relief and painted by hand; the ground combed with fine radiating striations while soft and finished with a painted brown vignette\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand-finished plaster slab with an irregular reverse, set into a moulded wooden frame finished in black; backed with pale green patterned paper tacked with brads; twisted wire hanger on two screw eyes\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone. No signature on the panel and no stamp, mark or label on the frame or backing. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1930–1955, on the framing. The backing is a tinted green paper held down by small round-head tacks driven by hand at irregular intervals — trade framing practice before the pneumatic stapler displaced it through the 1950s, and in a period when backing papers were tinted rather than brown kraft. The hanger is twisted steel wire. The panel behind it is hand-finished plaster with an irregular reverse. Nothing on the piece narrows the range further; a maker’s label would.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and hanging-ready, with honest age throughout. The plaster panel is intact with no cracks through it and no losses to the modelled figure — the nose, the lips and the ear are all crisp, which is where a relief takes damage first. The painted surface is stable, with the flesh tones and the orange still strong. There is scattered speckling across the ground: a few small white flecks, some fine green spots, and general surface grime settled into the combed texture. The frame's black finish is worn through to bare wood along the outer edges and at the corners. The backing paper is lifted and torn along the top edge. The hanging wire and both screw eyes are present and secure. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is a picture that changes when the light moves, and almost nothing else on a wall does that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBecause the figure stands proud of the panel, she catches a raking lamp or a low window and throws her own shadow. Morning light and evening light give you two different objects. A flat picture in the same spot gives you one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe scale is the useful part. At nine inches she is too small to dominate and too particular to ignore — right for a narrow wall, a stair return, the space beside a door, a bookshelf leaned rather than hung, or a group of small framed things where one piece needs to have depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe palette is quiet and warm. Cream, soft brown, black and one strong note of orange, in an old black frame. It sits with wood, brass, plaster walls and other dark frames without argument.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd the handwork shows at close range. The combed lines fanning out behind her head, the shading worked under the cheekbone, the single fine line of the eyebrow — these are decisions somebody made one at a time. That is visible from a foot away and it is the reason to own this rather than a print.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe worn frame is doing it a favour. Black rubbed through to bare wood at the corners is the finish people pay to fake, and here it came honestly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, and plaster is unforgiving in one specific way. Keep it dry. Plaster is porous and takes up moisture readily, so a bathroom, a kitchen wall above a stove, or an exterior wall that sweats in winter will do it slow damage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNever wash it and never use a damp cloth on the painted face. Dust it with a soft dry brush, which is the only thing that reaches down into the combed ground without dragging at the paint.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eLeave the backing paper alone. It is lifted at the top and it will tempt you to pull it — a framer can lay in a new sheet properly if you want it closed, and the old one is doing no harm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eHang it from the wire on a hook rated well above its weight, and keep it out of direct sun, which fades oil-painted flesh tones faster than any other colour on the panel.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48061164322921,"sku":"VE-1616","price":145.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/408E7391-1C92-452B-A921-8E4DFB0EC4A2.jpg?v=1789458307","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/hand-painted-plaster-relief-portrait-of-a-young-girl-in-profile-combed-ground-and-painted-vignette-in-an-old-black-moulded-frame","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}