A young girl fills the frame from the chest up, her head wrapped in layered cloth like a soft bonnet of wide blue-gray stripes alternating with pale bands, leaving a small triangle of dark hair visible at her crown. Her skin is medium-toned with a warm blush across the cheeks. The tip of her nose is slightly reddened, as if from sun or wind. Large, dark brown eyes catch the light with tiny highlights, looking past us to our left. Her mouth is closed, lips full and coral-pink, with a faint shadow at the corners that makes the expression feel guarded or somewhere between patience and reserve. A vivid red scarf is tied beneath her chin, its folds painted in quick, confident strokes. Gold hoop earrings arc along her cheek. She wears a dark charcoal outer layer over a white shirt. The background is an airy off-white, brushed thinly so the brown paper warms the surface. Paint is built up most densely in the face with soft transitions around the nose, eyelids, and chin while the head covering and clothing remain sketchier as visible brush marks and edges that blur into the background.
The title places her in Nabeul, Tunisia, and a note on the back hints at how hard-won this sitting was. It mentions children’s “shyness of foreigners” and says that “offers of money or trinkets seldom” persuade one to pose. The wording exposes a colonial-era gaze of curiosity voiced as judgment, yet it also implies the girl’s power to refuse. Slade’s image adds no props or scenery so he stays close to her face and lets the averted eyes keep something private. Made during the period of French control in Tunisia, the portrait becomes a question about looking … and power. Isabella Stewart Gardner bought the work directly from American artist Caleb Arnold Slade in 1921, preserving this encounter.
“A Girl of Nabeul” by Caleb Arnold Slade (American) - Oil on brown paper / 1921 - Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, Massachusetts) #WomenInArt #IsabellaStewartGardnerMuseum #GardnerMuseum #CalebArnoldSlade #Slade #PortraitofaGirl #Nabeul #Tunisia #art #artText #AmericanArt #AmericanArtist