Born on 16th October 1799, Margaret Felicité Anne Carew was twenty-four when this portrait was published, but she had been articled to the singing instructor James Welsh when she was only twelve. After two years' tuition she was engaged in the chorus at Covent Garden and distinguished herself in the spring of 1816 by singing Miss Stephens' role of Lucy Mannering in the opera Guy Mannering, when Miss Stephens was ill, at four hours' notice. She played Sylvia in Cymon there the same year, was engaged by the Haymarket that summer and returned to Covent Garden for the winter season. A review of her performance as Clara in Sheridan's opera The Duenna in The Theatrical Inquisitor or The Monthly Mirror, July 1818, described her voice as: 'a clear, powerful and sweet soprano, of considerable compass' and that her principle roles were established as Rosina Lodina, Clarissa, and Leonora.