On the Terrace

With her arm resting on the back of her chair, this young lady is looking very relaxed as she sits for her portrait on a terrace that overlooks a splendid landscape with trees and a lake with hills beyond. Her hair has been upswept and dressed in the latest fashion with stylised curls framing her face. Dressed in a simple white muslin empire-line dress, her only jewellery is a gold bracelet and her wedding ring, the latter possibly a new acquisition that she’s keen to show off.

The portrait is signed on the reverse ‘W.S. Lethbridge Pinxit / no. 96 Strand / London’. it is set in a handsome gold frame with a watch top hanger, the reverse glazed to reveal three shades of plaited hair on the reverse.

The son of a Devon farmer, Walter Stephens Lethbridge (1771/2-1831?) was apprenticed to a house painter but, having a talent for portraiture, he then attached himself to a travelling artist. He subsequently exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1801 and 1829. Examples of his work can be seen at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.