The Wine Merchant’s Daughter

This beautifully rendered profile shows Mary Watts-Russell in a décolleté dress, lace-trimmed cap and gold guard chain. Born in 1792, Mary was the only daughter of David Pike Watts of Ilam Hall in Derbyshire, a successful wine merchant and cousin of John Constable the artist. Mary married Jesse Russell whose wealth came from manufacturing soap. Following Mary’s inheritance of her father’s estate in 1817, Jesse added Mary’s surname to his own thereby becoming Watts-Russell.

In fine condition, the silhouette is dated by the artist ‘Brighton Septr 1818’ and later inscribed with the sitter’s details. It is housed in its original papier-mâché frame with convex glass and a floral hanger.

George Atkinson was born in Lincoln around 1785. He married a girl from Durham and fathered six children. As a young man he began his artistic career working out on the road in partnership with other artists before settling in Brighton where he worked solo for about ten years. By the time of the 1841 Census, he and his family were living at 1 London Street, Hackney. By then his children were aged between 8 and 24 with two of the boys having followed in their father’s footsteps by becoming artists.