A miniature watercolour of an elegantly dressed woman descending a flight of steps in a garden; holding an open book in her right hand. Signed and dated on the verso.

Among several miniature works in the Dolls' House, which were inspired by paintings of women from the eighteenth century, is this charming watercolour recalling the portraits of Thomas Gainsborough. It was probably inspired by Hugh Kelly’s theatrical comedy of 1768, False Delicacy, in which Lady Betty Lambton’s shyness and delicacy inhibit her admission of love for Lord Windworth. It is a variation on the Dolls’ House portraits of women as embodiments of sweetness or of rustic simplicity, linked visually to the others by Lady Betty’s bonnet and blue ribbons.