Signed and dated 1792, this oval portrait in black chalk, watercolour and stumping by John Downman (1750–1824) depicts Mrs Mary Seawell of Great Bookham.

Downman was a successful portraitist who produced highly finished likenesses of his sitters in black chalk, adding slight colouring to the lips, cheeks and hair in watercolour. A pupil of Benjamin West from 1768, he entered the Royal Academy Schools the following year, and between 1773 and 1774 was in Rome with Joseph Wright of Derby. He was an industrious artist in demand with all the great families of his day, not least the royal houses of Europe.

Collectors of eighteenth-century British portraiture and Downman's distinctive black chalk technique will find this a characteristic and finely preserved example of his sought-after portrait method.