Signed and dated 1797, this large pastel by John Russell RA (1745–1806) depicts Portrait of Charles Plowden, aged sixteen, with his Dog. Exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, 1797, no. 512.

Russell was one of the most sought-after pastellists of Georgian Britain and a Royal Academician celebrated for his technical mastery of the medium and his sympathetic characterisation of young sitters. The painting descended through the sitter's family, from his sister Anna Maria Plowden, before entering the collection of Edward, 2nd Baron O'Neill of Shane's Castle by 1873.

Collectors of eighteenth-century British pastel portraiture and of Russell's Royal Academy-exhibited work will find this a large-scale, fully provenanced and exhibition-documented example of his mature portrait practice.