John Miers, born in Leeds in the mid-eighteenth century, was a well-known portrait miniature painter and silhouette maker (or profilist). This form of portraiture took a lot less time than painting a miniature, sometimes only a few minutes, and became a more affordable way to have one’s likeness taken. Miers himself was keen to advertise that he could make numerous copies of the portrait of any one sitter. It was this easily reproducible nature that led him to have over 100,000 copies of profiles in his studio when he died in 1821 .

When painted on ivory, like in this example, silhouettes were created with watercolour, and ‘bronzing’, which has been used here to create the coloured details in the hair and the clothes. Though we do not have an identity for the sitter of this portrait, it can be seen that his likeness was treasured well, and likely worn by a loved one as a fashion piece, too.