A 17th-century painting has been classed as a “great rarity” in British art for its depiction of a black woman and a white woman as equals — even if the artwork is satirising them for their use of cosmetics.
Before the 17th century beauty patches — usually made from small patches of cloth or paper — had generally been used in England to hide skin blemishes. During the 1600s, however, in both France and England they became a fashion statement, particularly among the upper classes.
The government has placed an export bar on the Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies, by an unknown artist, while saying the depiction of the two women as “companions and equals” invited “important debate about race and gender during the period”.
The export bar — which gives the country’s museums and galleries an opportunity to raise the money to buy the picture from the unknown owner who plans to take it out of Britain — represents a remarkable rise for the artwork.
It had only emerged at auction in Shropshire in June from the estate of the sixth Lord Kenyon with a valuation of between £2,000 and £4,000.
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The government — which concedes the painting dated to around 1650 is “not distinguished artistically” — said it was now valued at £272,800.
Pippa Shirley and Christopher Baker, members of the committee that issued the ruling, said it was a “sternly moralising picture that condemns the use of cosmetics and specifically elaborate beauty patches which were in vogue at the time”.
They added: “Its imagery relates in fascinating ways to contemporary stereotypes of women, fashion, and, through the juxtaposition of the figures, race.”
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, the arts minister, said: “This fascinating painting has so much to teach us about England in the 17th century, including in the important areas of race and gender, which rightly continue to attract attention and research today.
“I hope a gallery or museum can buy this painting for the nation, so that more people can be part of the continuing research and discussion into it.”