Miss Ferns, a Writer

Miss Ferns is depicted as an attractive, young Western lady. She appears reserved and non-accessible to the viewer as she looks over her shoulder and out of a window. The sitter’s beauty and the elegant location are to be enjoyed, but her thoughts are private and guarded. The sophisticated pose, refined appearance, including a few pieces of gold jewellery, convey her social position as one of comfortable means.
Miss Ferns may have been a neighbour to the artist in Mahim and perhaps a writer. Trindade was too subtle to pose her with a pen and an inkwell as 18th and 19th century European artists often did, she holds a fan instead.
The sitter has been described as European woman of high social standing. Her fair skin, short hair and Western style garment mark her heritage. The surname Ferns is an anglicization of Fernandes, as she is probably of Goan decent. As it was often the case in Bombay, Christian names were shortened.
References: Shihandi, Marcella, et al, António Xavier Trindade: An Indian Painter from Portuguese Goa (exhibition catalogue), Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 1996; Gracias, Fátima, Faces of Colonial India: The Work of Goan Artist António Xavier Trindade (1870-1935), Panjim, Goa, Fundação Oriente, 2014.