Arthur Howman

Arthur Edward Howman was born in Norfolk to Edward and Ann (née Freston). Having graduated from Cambridge University in 1789, he was ordained as a deacon in Norwich, later moving to Shiplake nera Stratford-upon-Avon. He married Louisa Jane Cheverley in 1790 and with her has a son. Howman was in his 84th year when he died in 1848.

Apart from dust trapped under the glass, the profile is in fine condition. It is housed in the original papier-mâché frame with convex glass and an elongated leaf hanger. The frame is back with the artist’s unbroken trade label.

Master profilist John Field (1772-1848) worked alongside John Miers in his studio on The Strand. Miers only produced plain profiles whereas Field excelled at gilding and painted his finest and most attractive profiles during the 1810s and 1820s. The two men enjoyed a partnership and friendship of long standing that continued until Miers died in 1821. The business was then willed jointly to John Field and Miers’s son, William, but the dynamics had clearly been altered too much as within a few years the business filed for bankruptcy. Field continued to paint profiles during the 1830s but from a studio that he now shared with his own son.