Costumed Woman with Vegetables

Monogrammist M

mid-19th century · Watercolor and gouache on cream laid paper · Robert Lehman Collection

This elegant, carefully rendered watercolor has persistently puzzled scholars, who first associated it with the work of a Franco-Spanish artist but have now come to recognize its nineteenth-century British provenance. The monogram at the bottom right bears some resemblance to that of the English artist John Everett Millais, but as the drawing shares no stylistic similarities with Millais’s work, it seems more likely that the monogram was added later, either in error or as a deliberate deception.

Artist

Monogrammist M

Date

mid-19th century

Medium

Watercolor and gouache on cream laid paper

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975