Auburn Curls

Signed with the monogram SH and dated 1795, this engaging portrait shows a brown-eyed child with long loose auburn curls wearing a frill-edged white dress. The portrait is backed with part of an old watercolour playing card and is set in what appears to be the original turned pearwood frame.

Sophia Hannah Maria Howell was baptised at St Martin in the Fields in September 1766. She exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1781 and 1788.