Edwin Howland Blashfield was a native New Yorker who studied briefly in Boston before heading to Europe to be trained in the academic tradition. Blashfield’s subject matter included genre, portraits, ancient ruins, and Indian figures. “He developed a distinctive format that placed both real and allegorical figures in settings of historical and moral themes.” His earlier works included an attention to detail in dress and furnishings and are often referred at as ‘historical genre costume pieces.’

Red Haired Beauty, 1887, is a portrait of a red-haired woman wearing a loosely fitting peasant type shirt and skirt in an allegorical setting. The classical frieze underneath her feet, figural accents on the knees of the table as well as Classical or mythological figures on the table top, and pitchers and jugs are all indicative of Blashfield’s chosen subject matter of this time period.