Eliza Sharpe (Birmingham, 1796-1874) was a succesful miniature and subject painter in Britain around the turn of the nineteenth century. She exhibited 48 works at the Royal Academy, most of which were portrait miniatures, as well as 84 paintings at the Old Watercolour Society, and further exhibitions in Liverpool and at the Royal Manchester Institution. Towards the end of her life, she copied mainly paintings at the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) and exhibited these at the Society of Female Artists. Sharpe came from a close-knit artistic family: her father, the engraver William Sharpe, likely taught her and her sisters Louisa, Mary Ann, and Charlotte how to paint. The family moved to London in 1816, when all daughters swiftly began exhibiting at the Royal Academy. This lively and youthful portrait of Eliza by her sister Mary Anne was painted in the years following their arrival in 1818-1819, early in both of their careers. Mary Anne Sharpe (Birmingham, 1802-1867) would go on to exhibit 19 works at the Royal Academy, 25 at the Society of British Artists, and several more in Liverpool, at the Royal Manchester Institution, and the Society of Female Artists. Eliza and Mary Anne never married, and they exhibited from the same London address for some time.