c. 1907

Old Woman Drinking Tea

Italian, 1852 - 1930

This sitter's meticulous wardrobe includes a tailored purple jacket trimmed in red, a fur collar with a large brooch fastened at the neck, and a close-fitting hat that broadens into a dark ruffled canopy. A patch of purple to the rear suggests that she is seated before a mirror. With her eyes fixed in an abstract, careworn gaze, her lips resolutely pursed, she presents the very picture of enduring human antiquity. Mancini's treatment of her sagging, rumpled flesh, tinged with red and green, echoes certain late self-portraits by Rembrandt, who was a particular favorite of the artist.