The Red Shoe

This beguiling portrait is a study of motherhood during the Regency period showing, as it does, a young mother seated with her toddler son. An old label on the reverse names them as Mary and Charles Lacey (though the surname is perhaps open to interpretation!).

To sit for her portrait Mary has chosen to wear a cornflower blue dress with a sprigged modesty fill-in along with her best bonnet trimmed with lace and white flowers. A watch hangs on a gold guard chain and a gold and pearl bracelet is just visible on her wrist. Charles is typically dressed in a long white wide-shouldered dress with tiny ruffled sleeves.

The portrait is in excellent condition and is presented in a later gilt metal frame with convex glass and a velvet backing.