18th century women

Women in 18th century paintings fascinate me. What is it that they do so secretly?

What lives do they live when they don't have to pose for pictures?

What hopes and secret ambitions are hidden behind their serene and placid smiles?

I mean really, who are they? They are lost in time, and yet we are left with reminders of lives - full of mysteries and unknown things. And did they really look like that? Did they feel that the artist captured their beauty or did they hate the portrait? Was there something else they would have rathered be doing than just sitting there? Sometimes, I just like to look at them and wonder whether I would be friends with them, had I been alive then too.