Isabella Beetham was particularly skilled at capturing the fussy costume details of her female sitters as evidenced by this profile painted around 1790. With her hair styled in a chignon with a ringlet falling over her shoulder, the sitter wears a dress with a puffed-out buffon to cover her décolletage. It is though the fabulous dormeuse cap that draws the eye with its layered frilled edging and spotted ribbon bows.Painted on card the silhouette is finished with Mrs Beetham’s distinctive double-loop concavity bust-line. It is housed in the original turned fruitwood frame with the artist’s trade label (no. 5). Apart from very light age-toning, the silhouette is in fine condition.Isabella Beetham (1754-1825) began cutting silhouettes to support her young family. Her husband meanwhile dabbled in many trades from acting to inventing a washing machine. In the early 1780s Mrs Beetham had painting lessons from the miniaturist John Smart and thereafter began painting profiles in a more...