One of five children, Jane Beetham (later Read) was born into a creative family: her mother, Isabella trained under John Smart and became a successful silhouette artist whilst her father, Edward, had various careers that included glass painting, bookselling, acting and inventing, his most successful invention being the washing machine. Jane helped out in her mother’s silhouette studio from an early age and had drawing lessons from the portrait painter John Opie. It is said that Opie had an amorous relationship with his young pupil though she chose to marry the lawyer John Read, a widower ten years her senior. The couple had a daughter, Cordelia, with her own colourful story.Jane’s early work was stylistically influenced by her mother who also reverse painted silhouettes on glass. Jane created her own distinctive style by adding outdoor background details before further refining her technique to delineate her sitters’ features in a style that was more akin to a portrait miniature....