The Story
Portrait of a Woman by Thomas Forster. Rogers Fund, 1944
Created in 1700 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the portrait tradition. Thomas Forster worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in Plumbago on vellum, measuring Oval, 4 3/8 x 3 1/2 in. (112 x 90 mm), the surface rewards close looking. Thomas Forster builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
