This self-portrait miniature by Anne Mee shows two popular pathways for female artists in the eighteenth century: miniature painting and self-portraiture. Because of their intimate nature and small scale, miniature painting was considered more appropriate for women artists, who also benefited from the small size and portability of the materials needed to paint these delicate watercolour pictures on ivory. While many women artists would go on to find extensive patronage and commissions, their access to sitters was sometimes restricted early in their training. One subject was always available: your own likeness. This portrait miniature may have been painted by Anne Mee herself. It remains one of her most remarkable works, demonstrating the artist's soft but intensely emotive technique and her Romantic tendencies.

Anne Mee (b. Foldsone, ca. 1770-1851) was a British miniature painter active in the early nineteenth century. She likely trained with her father, John Foldsone, before taking lessons with George Romney. Her portrait practice supported the family financially after the passing of Mee’s father in 1784. In 1788, the poet William Hayley wrote of Mee:

‘I am sitting for him [George Romney] to a young female genius in miniature, who, at the age of seventeen, will, I trust, under his patronage, most comfortably raise, and support by her wonderful talent, a drooping family.’

Mee was celebrated during her lifetime and gained the patronage of Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales. Her husband, Joseph Mee, was supportive of her practice, though the diarist Farrington remarked that he ‘consented to let her paint ladies only who were never to be attended by gentlemen.’ Though reserved, he must have understood the financial incentives in letting Mee continue to paint: her practice was exceptionally lucrative, surpassing prices charged by male contemporaries like Richard Cosway. Mee exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution between 1804 and 1837.