Kid Gloves

Although he also painted portrait miniatures and even landscapes, Henry Edridge is best known for his full-length pencil and watercolour portraits, many of which were drawn whilst a guest at country house weekends. This example, with a fine-looking country cottage depicted in a garden landscape, is in all probability a portrait of one of his weekend hostesses. She is shown wearing a muslin day-dress with ribbon ties and a train together with a pair of kid gloves, her curled hair topped with a fashionable turban style hat.

Executed in pencil with touches of watercolour, the portrait is signed along the edge ‘Edridge 1796’. It is set in a period bird’s eye maple veneer frame.

The son of a London tradesman, Henry Edridge ARA (1768-1821) was apprenticed to an engraver and entered the Royal Academy Schools whilst still in his early teens. He exhibited miniatures and watercolour portraits between 1786 and 1821. His convivial London studio attracted many aristocratic sitters as well as artists and poets.