Anne James & Daughter Ann

These delightful portraits, painted by Easy Anglian artist George Roth during the 1770s, depict a mother, Anne James, and her eldest daughter, Ann.

Anne Senior is shown wearing a plum coloured dress with a lace handkerchief fastened at the front and matching dormeuse cap over her upswept and powdered wig. Her ribbon necklace is tied at the back as was the fashion during the 1770s and 80s. Anne Price was born in Powys in 1720 and married John James of Moor Court, Herefordshire in 1742, being the sole heiress to her father’s estate. They had six children; Ann died in 1789.

Anne Junior is shown wearing a narrow-fitting pale blue décolleté gown with a ribbon bow on her corsage. Her upswept and powdered hair is draped with a gauze veil. Born at Moor Court in 1748, Ann was John and Anne James’s second child and eldest daughter. On 1 March 1781, she married Dr Richard Crowther as his second wife. Crowther, an eminent London surgeon, was fifteen years Ann’s senior and died in 1789. The couple had no children.

Oil on canvas painted during the 1770s by George Roth. There are two small areas of paint loss to one portrait as shown and both would benefit from a professional clean. They are housed behind glass in their original ebonised frames with inner crennellated gilt surrounds. One is inscribed with the sitter’s details and signed by the artist on the backing board.

George Roth worked in both London and Bath between 1771 and 1793 specialising in small oil portraits. Being portable, these portraits would have appealed greatly to the well-to-do visitors who flocked to Bath during the season for its healing waters.