Masterpiece Story: Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies

The Painting

This work by an unknown artist depicts a double portrait of two imaginary women—one black and one white, depicted as each other’s mirror reflections. They both have lavish dresses and elegant hairstyles in the latest fashion, and their necks are adorned with prominent pearl necklaces. However, the most eye-catching elements in their depictions are the so-called “beauty patches” of various shapes, such as crescent moons, hearts, or stars.

Women used beauty patches to cover scars, pockmarks, or pimples. Although their origin dates back to antiquity, they were first utilized for aesthetic purposes only in the early modern period. Made of imported silks, leather, or velvet, they became extremely popular in 17th- and 18th-century France.

The painting was created when the English Parliament debated the act against “The vice of painting and wearing black patches, and immodest dress of women.” This was initiated by men outraged by women’s “excessive” use of makeup and how they dressed. The Puritan government of Oliver Cromwell argued that beauty patches were not merely an innocent decoration game but rather posed a danger as a means of concealing scars from sexually transmitted diseases.

Equality?

Another point that makes this portrait extraordinary is the way two women of two different skin colors were depicted as equals to each other. In the verse of the canvas, there is an inscription: “I black with white bespott y white with blacke this evil proceeds from thy proud hart then take her: Devill.”

The painting was created to condemn the use of beauty patches, which was on par with the Cromwellian government. However, it could be read in a more sinister way. Rather than depicting the equality of races, it can, in the contemporary understanding, “degrade” the white sitter’s position to that of a black sitter since both women are depicted here as allegories of vanity and sin. This, however, is a subject for open discussion.

Provenance

It is reported that the painting had been in the collection of Lloyd Tyrell-Kenyon, 6th Baron Kenyon (1947–2019), and had hung in his estate in Shropshire, UK, since the 19th century. After Tyrell-Kenyon’s death in 2019, it was auctioned by a small art gallery, Trevanion Fine Art and Antiques, in June 2021 for a whopping £220,000 (plus buyer’s premium) after an intense bidding battle among private collectors and public museums.

After the sale, the British government barred the painting from leaving the UK, as “the painting’s departure from the UK would be a misfortune because it is of outstanding significance to the study of race and gender in the 17th century,” according to the UK government’s online statement. This decision was made to give British cultural institutions a chance to purchase the painting within a time limit.

In 2023, the painting was “saved” by Compton Verney Art Gallery for the price of  £300,000 with grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the V&A Museum.