Horse on Wheels

This most charming portrait shows a child in a white dress trimmed with blue ribbon to match his/her blue shoes holding a toy whip and sitting astride a magnificent toy horse on wheels. Sadly the child’s name (and for that matter the horse’s name) and story has been lost to history.

Pastel on paper set in the original gild wood frame (small area of loss and tarnishing that adds to its patina).

The daughter of a blacksmith, Ellen Wallas married the portrait artist James Sharples as his third wife in 1787. The couple had two children, both of whom were to also take up painting. Around 1794 the family emigrated to the United States where there was a growing demand for portraiture. It was in Philadelphia in 1797 that Ellen began to draw portraits professionally. In 1801 the family returned home but in 1809 they re-visited New York where James died in 1811. This prompted Ellen’s permanent return to England; she and the children settled in Bristol. Upon her death in 1849 she endowed the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts.