A portrait of Ellen Smith of Nottingham

This portrait of Ellen Smith of Nottingham, executed around 1796, exemplifies the provincial gentry portraiture that Beechey practiced alongside his royal commissions. Nottingham connections are noteworthy given that Bonington, also with Nottingham roots, was among the most celebrated artists of the following generation. Beechey, knighted in 1798 and portrait painter to Queen Charlotte, executed the work with his characteristic solid, dependable oil technique that documented Georgian society's ruling classes with honest directness. Provincial subjects like Ellen Smith of Nottingham represent the broad social range of Beechey's practice — not only the aristocracy and royalty for which he is best remembered, but the county gentry and merchant families whose appetite for dignified portraiture sustained the commercial practice of Royal Academicians throughout the later eighteenth century. Such portraits served both as family records and as displays of social aspiration, hanging in the drawing rooms of comfortable provincial houses as evidence of refinement and artistic patronage.

The portrait is rendered with skilled technique that characterizes William Beechey's best work. Oil on canvas provides a rich ground for the subtle gradations of flesh tone and the textural contrasts between skin, fabric, and background that give the image its convincing presence.