Miss Elliott thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case RMC, Shelf 3, Box H

Miss Elliott

Portrait Miniature
1825 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

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.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleMiss Elliott (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on ivory
Brief description
Portrait Miniature, Miss Elliott, by Anne Mee, watercolour on ivory, ca. 1825
Physical description
Rectangular half-length portrait miniature on ivory of Miss Elliott, seated, in a gilt frame.
Dimensions
  • Height: 108mm
  • Width: 82.8mm
Dimensions taken from Summary Catalogue of Miniatures in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Emmett Microform, 1981.
Historical context
Portrait miniatures were frequently exchanged between loved ones and family in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain as tokens of affection and remembrance.
Subjects depicted
Summary
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.
Bibliographic references
  • Summary Catalogue of Miniatures in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Emmett Microform, 1981
  • Anne Mee, The gallery of beauties in the court of his most excellent majesty George the Third, London, 1812.
  • Paris A. Spies-Gans, A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760-1830, New Haven and London: Yale University Press and Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2022, p. 246.
Collection
Accession number
P.43-1931

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Record createdJuly 15, 2003
Record URL
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