George Powney

Samuel Shelley has successfully captured the sun-kissed complexion and self-satisfied air of this smartly dressed gentleman, George Powney, whose family had long established connections with India. His parents, Thomas Powney and Catherine de la Metrie, married, raised their family and died in Madras. Thomas was a prosperous free merchant and, like his brother before him, was appointed Mayor of Madras. George, their first child, was born in 1762.

George would have been educated in England before he joined the East India Company as a writer in 1779. He was then appointed Paymaster of the Troops at Travancore a position he only held for a few years. The death of his father in 1782 would have secured him financially and in 1789 he married Eliza Louisa Wynne Masters in Calcutta. George was then 27 but his bride was just 14 years old. The couple had twin daughters and a son. Perhaps due to Eliza’s very young age when they married, the couple were subsequently married again in 1809 upon their return to London. Eliza died in 1818 at their country retreat, Bishopsgate Cottage in Windsor. George found love again at the age of 63 when he married the daughter of an Irish baronet, Jane Friend Robinson. That marriage was cut short though as George died just two years later in 1827.

The portrait is presented in a gold frame that is engraved on the front with the sitter’s name and dates. The reverse is glazed to show a lock of brown hair tied with gold wire encircling the initials GP laid on opalescent glass and surrounded by a band of neatly plaited hair.

Coming from a modest background and mostly self-taught, Samuel Shelley entered the Royal Academy Schools at the age of seventeen and exhibited widely from 1772. He liked to experiment painting miniatures in landscape format and sometime with more than one sitter. His work is critically acclaimed and is well represented in all the major galleries. His death in December 1808 after a short illness was announced in the London papers without fanfare.

Ivory Exemption Ref.: REZYVL3Y