Portrait of a child was executed in 1920 by good listed Swiss female painter Esther Mengold (1877 Basel - 1954 Basel, resident of Basel, Chur and Speicher). Her work includes landscapes, flowers, family and group pictures as well as portraits.

Esther Mengold was the daughter of Adolf Mengold (1841-1912) and Hermine, née Naegeli (1855-1927). She attended the General Trade School in Basel, where she took a painting and drawing course with Johann Baptist Weißbrod. She then studied for a short time at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, before eventually continuing her studies independently.

From Florence she went to Munich, where she joined the Munich Women Artists' Association. Here she came into contact with Leo Putz, who recommended her to the Dachau artists' colony. There she was a student of Adolf Hölzel. Later she stayed in London and made a name for herself as a portraitist.

Back in Basel, Mengold came into contact with artists such as Sophie Burckhardt, née Hipp (1876–1942) and her husband Carl Burckhard, Paul Basilius Barth, Numa Donzé, Hermann Meyer, Heinrich Altherr and Paul Altherr, whom she married in 1907.

Mengold was a member of the Basel section of the Swiss Society of Women Artists. She exhibited her works in group exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Zurich, the Kunsthalle Basel and the Kunsthaus Zurich, among others. She found her final resting place in the Wolfgottesacker in Basel.

Literature: Artist lexicons by Thieme/Becker; Vollmer III, 1956, 

Inscriptions: signed and dated 1920 upper left.

Technique: oil on canvas, gilt frame.

Measurements: unframed w 18 1/2 x h 21 7/8" (47 x 55,5 cm),   framed 20 1/2" x 24 1/4" (52 x 61,5 cm)

Condition: very good condition.