The Tye Wig

Andrew Plimer has successfully captured the smouldering good looks of this young gentleman set against a blue clouded sky and shown in half-profile. Dating to around 1790, the gentleman is wearing a powdered tye wig, the powder from which has fallen onto the velvet collar of his brown coat.

The portrait is housed in a 14ct gold frame, the reverse also glazed to reveal thickly plaited brown hair. The portrait also retains the original red leather travelling case that is showing its age with a small crack to the leather covering and some losses to the silk lining.

Andrew Plimer (1763-1837) was the son of a Shropshire clockmaker, a trade he and his older brother were expected to assume to. But the two boys had different ideas and so ran away from home, eventually reaching London where Andrew had the good fortune to be taken on as a valet to the famed miniature painter Richard Cosway who, recognising the young man’s budding talent, arranged painting lessons for him. Plimer set up his own studio in 1785 and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1786 and 1830.