Serene in White

Elegantly poised against a cloudy blue sky, this lady wears a traditional décolleté dress with a cross-over bodice and narrow sleeves typical of the 1790s. Her unpowdered brown curls are held in place with a fashionable bandeau.

In the unmistakable hand of Andrew Plimer and in fine condition, the portrait is set in a rose gilt frame that is glazed on the reverse to show two shades of neatly interwoven hair.

Andrew Plimer (1763-1837) was the younger son of a Shropshire clockmaker, a trade he and his brother were expected to assume to. But the boys dreamt of a different life so they ran away to travel with a gypsy menagerie. They painted the vans and the scenery and were not above stealing decorators’ paints as and when they could! Finding themselves in Buckingham after a couple of years on the road, they left the troupe to walk to London where Andrew had the good fortune to be taken on as a studio assistant to the famed miniature painter Richard Cosway who, recognising the young man’s budding talent, arranged painting lessons for him. Plimer set up his own studio in 1785 and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1786 and 1830.