Elaborately Coiffured

In a portrait most likely painted in 1813 to mark her marriage at the age of seventeen, Sophia Charlotte Powys wears a stylish high-waisted black silk dress with a draped bodice and lace-trimmed neckline. Her brown hair is arranged in an elaborate up-do with curls and colour-matched ribbons and feathers.

Born in July 1796, Sophia was the third of five children born to Philip Lybbe Powys and Louisa Michell of Hardwick House in Oxford. In September 1813, aged 17, she married Edward Simeon, the younger son of a Baronet and a Cambridge graduate. They lived at Walliscote House, Whitchurch-on-Thames and had a daughter in 1827 who sadly did not survive. Sophia died in 1833 aged just 36.

The portrait is in fine condition and is set in a (deeper than average) oval brass-faced frame. Biographical details are inscribed on a label pasted on the reverse.