Blushing Cheeks

Sensitively captured, this young lady with blue-green eyes was blushing as she sat for her portrait. She is wearing a white dress with a cross-over bodice, the sleeves and waistband both decorated with pearls with a matching rope of pearls in her upswept curls.

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

Self-taught, Samuel Shelley entered the Royal Academy Schools at the age of seventeen and exhibited widely between 1772 and 1804. He is well noted for his miniatures of children and ladies and is said to have particularly enjoyed painting group portraits. His death in December 1808 after a short illness was announced in the London papers without fanfare.