Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset was one of four miniatures that my mother painted. The subject was another beautiful, intelligent and outspoken woman of her times. In the box with the miniature was a small typed note probably done by my grandfather. It reads ” Georgiana, Duchess of Somerset, was a younger sister of Caroline Norton and the most beautiful of the three sisters who all inherited the charm and intelligence of their grandfather the well know playwright. (Richard Brinsley Sheridan) She was elected Queen of Beauty in the famous tournament which cost Lord Eglington £40,000.” The miniatures were purchased by her stepfather ostensibly to sell on after exhibiting them in the lobby of the Royal Hotel in Weymouth where my grandfather worked part time in his retirement as their accountant. He ended up keeping them all and left them to his mistress who many years later returned them to the family.

Regarding the technique used to paint the miniatures, my mother showed me the brush she used which was a very simple wooden stick with a single small Woodcock’s pin-feather mounted in the end. When the feather would wear and become dull, she would use tweezers to stick a new one in its place. Apparently, this was the traditional favored brush of Victorian miniaturists. For the substrate of the painting, she used a product called Ivorine, a small sheet of Cellulose Nitrate that had the appropriate color and texture to simulate the ivory sheets used by miniaturists in earlier less enlightened times. Of course the traditional oval shape was the product of slicing those ivory tusks in cross section. Be sure to click on the image to see a greatly magnified view of the original.

The source image: