Smit, having the habit of using his relatives as models, painted the first single portrait of Lotty in 1924. She is the younger daughter of his Urban friends. Six years earlier, the painter had made a double portrait representing her next to her big sister Marijke.1
With a three-quarter profile, the little girl is seated on a chair upholstered in red velvet. Her upward gaze is fixed in the distance, which remains unknown to us. Frozen in a state of great concentration, she seems eager for the end of the sitting - she is just nine years old. It is probable that this portrait was executed for her birthday.
The composition of this work is rather simple. The colours are reduced to reds, browns and, green, as well as a little yellow in the background wallpaper. However, this unusual choice of colours for a portrait of a child can be explained by the desire of Lotty, ever the coquette, to be portrayed in her prettiest clothes. A photograph (fig. 1), taken the same year during a crossing of the Atlantic2, shows her wearing this same dress with a green collar, which is paired by the foliage of the small bouquet delicately placed on her knees.
This portrait expresses all of Smit's tenderness for little Lotty. She grew up and always lived with the painter. They were united by a mutual affection.
1. See [PS 185].
2. See Chronology 1924.
