Little Girl in Lavender

John Bradley

National Gallery of Art

A young girl stands facing us next to a tall, stylized plant, perhaps a rose bush, in this vertical portrait painting. Looking at us with blue eyes, she has light, peachy skin, and her brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back. Her shoulders are bare, and she wears a coral-red bead necklace. The dress flares out where it encircles her upper arms above short ruffled sleeves. A black apron is tied around her waist and falls to about her knees. The skirt of the dress is longer, falling to midcalf, and wide, white petticoats extend like pant legs below to white stockinged feet in black shoes. A white, lace-trimmed handkerchief is tucked into her apron, and she wears a black brooch at her chest. She holds a gray glass basket in her left hand, our right, filled with two red roses, a blue flower, and green leaves. With one hand, she touches a stem on the rose bush, which is planted in a red pot. One flower has fallen to the floor next to a brown and white cat, perhaps a kitten, in the lower left corner of the painting. The girl and cat stand on an emerald-green carpet, the edge of which runs from the lower right corner of the canvas toward the back of the darkened room.