A young girl stands with her hands on her hips. in a lush field under an evening sky. Dressed in a simple white dress, shawl and yellow stomacher, she gazes directly at the viewer, her expression serene. She wears a red ribbon in her hair. A bramble creeps around the front of her skirts and a copse and hills can be seen in the background. She appears very much in the guise of the idealised Italian countrywoman. Although the title suggests that this is a portrait, nothing is known of the sitter’s identity. August Heinrich Riedel (1802-1883) was predominantly a painter of portraits, genre works and historical subjects. A student of the Munich Academy, Riedel visited France, Germany, Belgium and Italy but it was in Rome that he became a Member and Professor of the Academia di S Luca.