Portrait of a girl in a hat.

This small oil on cardboard portrait of a girl in a hat by Witold Pruszkowski presents an unusual dating challenge: the year recorded is 1801, which predates the artist's birth by forty-five years and is almost certainly a cataloguing or transcription error. Pruszkowski lived from 1846 to 1896, making any work dated 1801 impossible. The painting should be understood as belonging somewhere within his career, most plausibly as an informal study or affectionate genre piece, perhaps depicting a young family member or model. The cardboard support suggests an informal, small-scale work — a study or gift rather than a formal commission. Pruszkowski's oeuvre includes both grand Romantic canvases and smaller, more personal works, and portraits of children with charming details like distinctive hats fall within a genre tradition of capturing youth with gentle, sympathetic observation.

Oil on cardboard, a support typically associated with sketches and informal studies rather than exhibition-format paintings. The small scale and portable medium suggest a work executed with spontaneity. Brushwork is likely freer than in Pruszkowski's formal commissions, with the hat as a compositional focal point providing visual interest.