Portrait of a child with a bird - Portrait of a mature woman with a book in her hand

"Portrait of a child with a bird" and "Portrait of a mature woman with a book in her hand", a pair of oil portraits on paper applied to canvas. The paintings are by the same painter and are datable to around 1840. The child is dressed according to the children's fashion of the noble classes of the time, while the woman's dress is a typical folk costume from Valtellina or Valchiavenna, the latter element which, together with the characteristic bare wood frames, circumscribes the area of origin of the two small works. The correspondence of the dimensions and the frames indicates that the two paintings must have belonged to a series of family portraits. The age difference makes it unlikely that the two characters were mother and son, perhaps they were grandmother and grandson; if, however, we consider that family cohabitation was often extended, it is possible that the woman was a beloved housekeeper or the child's governess. Dimensions cm. 60x49 each, both contained in contemporary and original frames of bare wood; optimal conservation conditions.