Painting

The subject is a young woman wearing a dress embroidered with gold and silver thread, and a dark violet apron, also embroidered with white and gold flowers. The bodice is trimmed with strips of lace, and on the front is a lace-appliqué. The décolleté is supplemented with a wide piece of lace embroidered with pearl flung over the breast. The blouse has an embroidered lace trimming and the upper part of the sleeves is tied with embroidered ribbons. The head-dress is embroidered with pearls, the neck-band is a black band with a bow pendant, and white strings of pearls, and the bracelets are of similar type. The background is grey. The picture must have belonged to a family portrait-gallery. It is the work of a provincial master who tried to achieve decorative effects by using simple forms and calligraphic modelling. The features and the ornament-like surroundings and costume are rendered with the same pictorial interest and accuracy. The works of the Kramer painter family active in this period in Eperjes, and its surroundings show decorativeness and rich surroundings such as are to be seen in our picture. Near to Mrs. Szmrecsanyi, on the table covered with blue drapery is a red flower beside a jewel box and a watch. She holds a rose in her hand with three blossoming and budding flowers and three leaves, on each of them the names of her children: Pau/lus/, Car/olus/, Jos/ephus/. This floral symbolism is used by Johann Gottlieb Kramer in the portrait of Anna Maria Hellenbach in 1740, Bratislava, Slovenska Narodna Galeria, but it can also be found on the portrait of Dorottya Szontagh from 1759.