English School, early 18th century Portrait of a lady, half length, in a red dress and blue wrap oil on canvas 75 x 62cm, oval, in a carved and painted frame Condition report: Oil on canvas which has been lined. The canvas is in plane and the lining tension is stiff. Stretcher bar marks are evident around the edge of the canvas where is rests against the wooden stretcher behind. The paint layer is stable and secure overall. There is a localised area of damage in the sitter’s right cheek with disrupted paint and localised losses. There are small areas of retouching in the face, on the cheek and covering fine cracks. There are larger areas of overpaint in the blue dress and the background. The varnish is degraded becoming matte and yellow. It no longer adequately saturates the paint layers below, evident in the darker paint passages where the brittle varnish is cracking along the lines of age cracks in the paint layer. There is a layer of surface dirt present. .