Elizabeth Hudson was a lady of many talents including reverse painting on glass of which this is a typical example. Painted in black and translucent shades of grey, the profile depicts a gentleman in a toupée and pigtail wig wearing a double-breasted coat with deeply cut lapels over a knotted stock.The silhouette is reverse painted on bevelled glass with a verre églomisé border (small paint losses) and is set within a gold plated frame, the reverse also glazed to show thinly plaited brown hair. There is slight damage to the metal rim at 6 o’clock and a tiny scratch to the glass over his neck.Elizabeth Hudson (née Chilcot) was multi-talented. Born in 1753, she initially worked in her father’s jewellery shop specialising in hairwork settings for portrait miniatures. Following her marriage in 1777 she and her husband joined a touring theatrical company with Elizabeth doing comic sketches and singing on stage. Alongside she began to paint silhouettes on glass, later adding wax mode...