[Folk Art] Watercolor of a Buxom Young Woman Playing an Organ

England or Scotland, 1849. Very Good. Bewitching Folk Art portrait of a young woman playing the organ, her gaze, upward, in rapturous ecstasy, moved by her own music-making or the transcendence of its religious association. We think the woman's face is quite possibly a reasonable likeness of the person, and it might well be a self-portrait, and some of the detailing is quite good, such as the woman's rag curls, her bracelets, the organ's side brackets. None of this affects our view that this is Folk Art, as demonstrated by the artist's tenuous understanding of perspective and her Ancient Egyptian presentation of the woman's body. The artist being surely of an affluent pedigree doesn't matter on this either, we believe. That said, the artistic shortcomings are also the sources of the watercolor's charm. The watercolor is on paper measuring 21 by 20 cm. We like the clever and subtle way the artist identifies herself, with her name on the organ's brand plaque, and we are most grateful for the exact dating of the painting in tiny characters at the base. We would guess that the painting was removed from a sketchbook, yet the signing and dating also enhances its current status as a standalone piece. (Inventory #: 20218)