John Russell R.A. 1745-1806

half-length, seated, wearing a white dress and playing a lute

The sitter appears to be Harriot Mellon (c.1777-1837) who would have been twenty-seven at the time this portrait was drawn.  She acted on the stage from the age of ten, her mother and stepfather both being actors.  She first appeared at Drury Lane for Sheridan in 1795 and remained on the London stage until 1815.  She was intimate with the banker Thomas Coutts, who was said to be the richest man in London, and they married in 1815 after the death of his first wife.  Coutts died in 1822 leaving his fortune to his wife and in 1827 she married William Aubrey de Vere, 9th Duke of Albans.  She was also painted by Romney and Sir William Beechey