An exercise in the style of Rembrandt, recalling his 'Saskia as Flora' in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, though that does not preculde a portrait. The catalogue of the Christie's sale, 22 January 1898 (lot 88) records a traditional identification of the sitter as Lady Anne Walpole (1733-97). She was one of the three rather plain daughters of Horatio, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton (1678-1757) and no portraits of her in her maturity are recorded. The face somewhat resembles that of her cousin Lady Mary Walpole (c.1725-1801, who married in 1745 the poet Charles Churchill) as seen in J.G. Eccardt's portrait in the Lewis Farmington Library, or in Benjamin Wilson's so-called 'Peg Woffington' in the Garrick Club.
