This charming portrait depicts a sitter who has been previously catalogued as ‘Gavenham’. However, we can now confidently identify the sitter as Captain Govenham, given the inscription on the back of the miniature. Though no other information has come to light about who Captain Govenham may have been, this does allow us to trace the miniature to having been displayed at the 1818 Royal Academy Exhibition, alongside one of his wife, Mrs Govenham.

The fact that this exhibition record labels the miniatures as being displayed together in a frame suggests that the current frame could have been a later addition. It also suggests that the companion to our current portrait is still out there, waiting to be reunited with her husband. The brilliant blue of the sitter’s jacket links him to the navy, and though in the exhibition he was listed as a major, it is possible that, by the time the later frame was made for the miniature, he had been promoted from this position to captain.

Though to the modern eye, such striking pink hair may seem to be rather unique, Govenham is only following the trends of his time. A lot of Engleheart’s sitters are adorned with powdered wigs, like in the present example, some of which are pink, though more commonly they are powdered with white, or off-white. Still, pink powder was among the common colours used to take part in this fashion. What it does potentially tell us about Govenham, though, is that he was a relatively wealthy man. In the end of the 18th century, around about when this portrait would have been painted, the government had put in place an annual license fee on the purchase of powder for wigs, in order to raise money to fund war. If this was painted following the imposition of this tariff, he would have had to be willing to pay such a fee, just to maintain the upkeep of his pink hair.

The oeuvre of George Engleheart demonstrates the fact that he was aware of such fashions, and was more than happy to depict his sitters wearing them. Not only this, but he was talented in doing so. A closer look at his miniatures, including the present, reveals his use of bold lines of colour to create detail that appears smooth and seamless from afar. Here, this has a particular effect on the face of the painter, which is speckled with lines of a peach colour, giving him a rosy complexion to complement his hair. He would have developed this technique not only through his countless commissions and creations, but also his training under great portrait painters of the time, like Joshua Reynolds. This skill would lead him to be patronised by King George III, as well as numerous other important noblemen and noblewomen of the period.