She's an odd one, with the soul of a poet to me--and, with black paint covering all but the bottom edge of her dress (revealing its stripes), I keep thinking of her as something of a young Sandra Day O'Connor in her black robe, too!  As with her dress, the drape at right is painted onto the full plate tintype in black-- and as with that marvelous passage along the bottom edge, where tintype photo meets abstract painting, so it does again in the very gestural scalloping along the edge of the drape. And then this painterly tree behind her, looking more like a watercolor than anything else, but seemingly part of the photographic image, not painted on top. Perhaps a straight ahead portrait (with painted studio backdrop) turned into a mourning portrait as circumstances required it, and I presume meant to live inside a frame that would conceal the unfinished bottom edge. Whatever the case, for me the effect is of a portrait forever hovering in its own in-between world--her world.

8 3/8" x 6 1/2". Good condition, as found. It looks like maybe a little dust on the surface--I shot with some magnification and did not notice it at all just looking at it.