Alfred Joseph Woolmer, 1805-1892, Portrait of a Young Girl

This is a charming late 19th c. Orientalist paintings of a young girl seated in a traditional doorway. Alfred Joseph Woolmer is a well-listed English 19th century genre and literary painter who was born in Chelsea in 1805. He studied in Italy and from 1828 started exhibiting at well-known galleries such as the Royal Academy, British Institute and the Royal Society of British Artists. Woolmer was a prolific artist-- during his lifetime he exhibited over 335 works in the London galleries. In 1848 he was elected to the Society of British Artists and in the following decade went on to exhibit between ten and sixteen pictures each year with the society.
Woolmer painted in a very distinctive style, combining rich colours and a fluid technique with a broad range of subjects from classical to pastoral scenes, often reflecting an influence of French painting from the 18th Century such as the work of Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). His style of painting led to him to become associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement earning the name ‘the English Diaz’ (after Narcisse Diaz de la Peña).
A number of his works can be found in museums and art galleries including the Glasgow Museum, National Museum of Cardiff, New Walk Museum, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Sheffield Museum and the Walker Art Gallery,