Jane Stone

Painted during the Regency period, Jane is depicted wearing a décolleté empire-line dress trimmed with van-dyke lace. Her dark curls have been upswept and secured with a pretty pearl clasp that matches her creamy pearl necklace.

Born in 1786, Jane was the first wife of Robert Stone of Boylestone, Derbyshire. The couple had two children, John Spencer (born 1810) and Elizabeth Jane (born 1813) and lived at Needwood House in Staffordshire. It was here that Jane died in 1822, aged 36. Left with two young children to care for, Robert remarried in 1830 but died just two years later.

The portrait resides in the original gold-plated frame that is glazed on the reverse to show neatly plaited brown hair overlaid with a fleur-de-lis spray of hair tied with gold wire. An old label on the reverse records the sitter’s details.

John Jukes entered the Royal Academy Schools when he was nineteen years old. He travelled to India in 1812 where he already had a relative working in the Bombay Medical Services. Bombay must have pleased him as Jukes was to remain there until 1824 during which time he was well patronised. At a farewell dinner held in his honour his work was praised as ‘almost every person belonging to [the Bombay] Presidency had some token of his talents connected with the dearest objects of their affection’.