Shyly Blushing

Wearing a white cross-over gown trimmed with blue on the sleeves and with a matching blue ribbon sash on her waist, this young lady can’t help but blush as she sits for her portrait. Her hair has been curled and powdered and is dressed with a white bandeau.

This delicately painted portrait is by the hand of Samuel Shelley who is well noted for his sensitive portraits of ladies and children. Coming from a modest background, he was mostly self-taught before he entered the Royal Academy Schools at the age of seventeen. Shelley developed a distinctive style of painting that subtly conveyed the character of his sitters.

The portrait is set in a gold frame, the reverse glazed to reveal gold initials EC laid on brown plaited hair.