Stormy Skies

Set against a sultry sky backdrop, this wide-eyed lady is wearing a classical crossover gown with a high waistline in a fashion that dates the portrait to the late 1790s. Her curled hair is worn natural without powder and is dressed with a bandeau tied in an eye-catching bow.

The portrait is in excellent condition and is housed in the original gold frame that is glazed on the back to show neatly plaited brown hair.

Nathaniel Plimer (1757-1822) was the eldest son of a Shropshire clockmaker, a trade he and his brother were expected to assume to. Instead the two boys chose to run away, reaching London in 1781 where Nathaniel initially worked for the enamellist Henry Bone and took painting lessons alongside his brother with Richard Cosway. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1787. Plimer is said to have been ‘a man of the most violent and ungovernable temper, giving way at times to terrible outbursts of violence’ (Williamson 1903).