Full Length Portrait of a Lady with a Strong Gaze and Lashings of Lace by Henry Edridge Signed & Dated 1804

This wonderful small length portrait is executed with both pencil and wash on paper and is signed by Henry Edridge and dated 1804. The scene is wonderful managing to combine the portrait of our good lady with an interior scene set in front of the window, where she sits one hand casually holding her spectacles with the other resting upon an open book on the table and then through that window there is the suggestion of a landscape of no doubt well manicured gardens beyond. The following quote I found from The Royal Collection Trust's website about Henry Edridge for me feels very appropriate for this portrait "It is for small full-length portrait drawings that he is best known. These are as evocative of their period as are those by Ingres of sitters in early Nineteenth Century France or Rome." Henry Edridge - Born in 1768 (Some references have the date as 1869) in Paddington London, he started his career as an apprentice to the Mezzotint Engraver William Pether, who I believe also under took miniature portraits. In 1784 he began studying at The Royal Academy Schools and was much admired by Joshua Reynolds who did buy some of Edridge's work. He became known as a highly talented miniaturist I believe painting both Nelson and the Prime Minister William Pitt. From the 1790s he moved away from miniatures, concentrating on full length portraits in pencil and wash with the sitter seated in an interior with a view of a landscape beyond. These portraits became very fashionable and desirable to the Aristocracy and in 1803 he portrayed King George III who was shown in his portrait standing in front of Windsor Castle. Provenance - The Portrait is from the Arnold Fellows Collection and on the back of the frame there is some faded script which I believe reads 'Henry Edridge A.R.A 1769-1821. Portrait of a Seated Woman 1804. Arnold Fellows Collection No 182'. Arnold Fellows was a School Teacher who collected art throughout his life. On his death his whole collection was donated to Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall where he was a pupil between 1911-1917. I believe it is likely that is was Arnold Fellows who framed this portrait as the frame is much younger than the portrait. The frame is a simple gilt wooden one and I think works well with the portrait.