Mrs Roberts

Resplendent in an eye-catching gold-sprigged turban headdress and claret dress with a lace-edged collar, this lady is named on the reverse as ‘Mrs Roberts of Esher, Surrey’. Inspired by Eastern culture, turbans à la turque were popular during the 1820s and were advertised daily in the London papers. This led to a demand for ‘turban cap-makers’ who were assured of ‘constant employ’.

Delving through the 1841 Census has successfully unlocked Mrs Roberts’ details. Born around 1765, Elizabeth was the daughter of Captain Charles Torriano and his wife Jane Hawkes. Being part of a military family gave Elizabeth the opportunity to travel to India where in 1798 she married Peter Nathan Roberts. Perhaps this is where her love of turbans sprang from. The couple had four children though one daughter died very young. Elizabeth died in 1828 just a few years after this portrait was painted.

The composition is signed with a flourish in pencil on the reverse, J.C.D. Engleheart / Pinxit 1822 / 70 Berners St / London. The portrait demonstrates Engleheart’s mastery of the ‘wet on wet’ technique which he has used to add shimmer and texture to the dress. It is set in the original decorative gilt metal frame.

Having worked closely with his uncle – George Engleheart – since the age of fourteen, John Cox Dillman Engleheart finally gained his own studio at 88 Newman Street in 1807/8. His technique and style was inevitably influenced by his uncle but independence brought with it a new confidence to paint larger-sized miniatures and to use a bolder palette.

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