The painting depicts a woman, seated on an upholstered white chair, before a patterned grey-green backdrop. The woman has dark hair which is tied up with an orange ribbon, and she wears a fine light pink silk dress with a lace shawl across her shoulders. The woman smiles and looks down at her young daughter, who stands on her right. This girl is dressed in a white silk gown, with a large pink bow. Her light brown hair is tied up with a red ribbon. The girl looks off to her right, to something or someone unknown to the viewer, and her mouth is slightly ajar, as though she is about to speak. The girl places her hand on the head of a black and tan hound, which rests on the woman’s lap. The woman holds the dog’s neck with her left hand, and gently rests her right on her daughter’s arm.

Short, well-blended strokes of paint have been employed to render the scene in a highly naturalistic way. The light has been beautifully portrayed, with great attention paid to the way it catches on the figures’ fine clothing. There is a great sense of delicacy and intimacy created in this painting.

‘G. Costa’ is signed in the upper left of the canvas. Giovanni Costa (also known as Nino Costa) was a famous Italian artist, best-known for his naturalistic landscape paintings. Costa was taught in Rome by the leading Neoclassical painter, Vincenzo Camuccini, and he later continued his education at the Acccademia di San Luca. The artist joined Giuseppe Garibaldi in his fight for Italian unification, but after the fall of the Roman Republic in the mid-19^th Century, Costa fled to the Roman Campagna to take refuge from the papal authorities. While living in the Campagna, Costa met many artists travelling to Rome, including the English painter Frederick Leighton. In 1870, Costa became the Professor of Painting at the Accademia di Bella Arti in Florence. Today, his work is found in many important art museums and collections in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, including La Galleria Nazionale in Rome and The National Gallery in London.

Canvas: Height 107cm, width 82cm
Frame: Height 127cm, width 101.5cm, depth 7cm