Selina Childers

This portrait of Selina Childers in a classical décolleté cross-over gown, is typical of Andrew Plimer’s work during the 1790s both in terms of the artist’s technique and in the presentation of his sitter. Like his master, Richard Cosway, Plimer often set his sitters against a clouded blue sky backdrop and, although a meticulous artist, he had a tendency, as witnessed by this portrait, to elongate his sitter’s nose.

Born in 1773, Selina Gideon Eardley was the daughter of Sir Sampson Gideon Eardley and his wife Mary Marrow Wilmot. Her grandfather allegedly made the family’s fortune by speculating on stocks whilst the market was in panic due to the Pretender’s failed invasion of 1745. Although Jewish, he brought his children up as Christians. In 1797 (most likely the year this portrait was painted) at the age of 23 Selina married John Walbanke Childers of Cantley Hall near Doncaster. One of John’s ancestors bred a famous stallion – ‘Flying Childers’ – that was reputed to be the fleetest horse ever having run 3 miles, 6 furlongs and 93 yards in 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Between 1798 and 1812 Selina and John had seven sons and three daughters, the youngest having been born after John’s sudden death in 1812. Selina was 77 when she died at Hastings in 1851.

The portrait is housed in a gold frame, the reverse showing plaited brown hair and engraved with sitter’s name and dates.

Andrew Plimer (1763-1837) was the younger son of a Shropshire clockmaker, a trade he and his brother were expected to assume to. But the boys had their own ideas and ambitions which led them to run away from home. They joined a gypsy menagerie using their artistic talents to paint the scenery, often cheekily stealing decorators’ paints! After a couple of years on the road, the boys left the troupe to walk to London where Andrew had the incredible good fortune to be taken on as a studio assistant to the famed miniature painter, Richard Cosway. Recognising the young man’s budding talent, Cosway arranged painting lessons for him. Plimer finally set up his own studio in 1785 and went on to exhibit at the Royal Academy for over four decades.

Ivory Exemption Ref.: 2D4ZU8PH