Henry Edridge was a competent miniature painter and tried his hand at oils. But at the end of the 18th century and during the Regency times he developed a highly popular form of watercolour portraiture – and it is on these that his reputation now rests. These pictures were slightly unusual in that, although small in scale, they almost inevitably depicted their subjects full-length. It has been said that you can follow the development of English fashion by looking at Edridge’s works, which take the viewer from the powdered and bewigged men and women of the 1780s through to the much more pared down classical styles of the late Regency period.

This elegant figure, dateable to the years 1800-1810, is typical of Edridge at his best.