{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1069906"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1069906/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NT3764/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NT3764/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2024NT3764","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1069906/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1069906","accessionNumber":"P.22-1963","objectType":"Portrait miniature","titles":[{"title":"Portrait of Sarah Sophia Child-Villiers, Lady Jersey","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Anne Mee (b. Foldsone, ca. 1770-1851) was a British miniature painter active in the early nineteenth century. She likely trained with her father, John Foldsone, before taking lessons with George Romney. Her portrait practice supported the family financially after the passing of Mee’s father in 1784. In 1788, the poet William Hayley wrote of Mee:\r\n\r\n ‘I am sitting for him [George Romney] to a young female genius in miniature, who, at the age of seventeen, will, I trust, under his patronage, most comfortably raise, and support by her wonderful talent, a drooping family.’\r\n\r\nMee was celebrated during her lifetime and gained the patronage of Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales. Her husband, Joseph Mee, was supportive of her practice, though the diarist Farrington remarked that he ‘consented to let her paint ladies only who were never to be attended by gentlemen.’ Though reserved, he must have understood the financial incentives in letting Mee continue to paint: her practice was exceptionally lucrative, surpassing prices charged by male contemporaries like Richard Cosway. \r\n\r\nMee exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution between 1804 and 1837.","physicalDescription":"Portrait miniature on ivory of Lady Jersey with gold jewellery and auburn eyes in an engraved metal frame.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mee, Anne","id":"A7723"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":"Anne Mee (b. Foldsone, ca. 1770-1851) was a British miniature painter active around the turn of the nineteenth century. She was likely taught by her father John Foldsone before taking lessons with George Romney. Mee in turn may have taught Mary Barret (fl. 1797-1836), who also took lessons with Romney. Upon Mee’s father’s death in 1784, she turned to miniature painting to substitute the family’s income. By 1790, Mee had the patronage of Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales. She married the Irish barrister Joseph Mee in 1793 and exhibited from 1804. Her husband, though supportive of her career, only allowed her to paint female sitters. Still, her career was lucrative. She regularly charged 40 guineas for a miniature portrait – more than the 30 guineas that Cosway had charged the Prince of Wales for a miniature of the queen in 1795."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"AAT15045"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on ivory","categories":[{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"},{"text":"Miniatures","id":"THES269968"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2024NT3764"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"RMC","shelf":"3","box":"H"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"miniatures (paintings)","id":"AAT33936"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1799","earliest":"1799-01-01","latest":"1799-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by Mrs M. V. Cunliffe","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"7.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"4.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from <u>Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1963</u>. London: HMSO, 1964.","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Lady Jersey Miss Child 1799","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Engraved on the upper half of the face of the metal frame"}],"objectHistory":"Anne Mee included Sarah Sophia Child-Villiers in her series of 'fashionable beauties', commissioned by the Prince Regent. In 1812, she started a serial publication, <i>Gallery of Beauties of the Court of George III</i>, though only one issue was published.","historicalContext":"Portrait miniatures were frequently exchanged between loved ones and family in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain as tokens of affection and remembrance. ","briefDescription":"Portrait Miniature, Sarah Sophia Child-Villiers, Lady Jersey, by Anne Mee, watercolour on ivory, 1799","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1963 </u>.  London: HMSO, 1964.\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Anne Mee, <i>The gallery of beauties in the court of his most excellent majesty George the Third,</i> London, 1812."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Paris A. Spies-Gans,<i> A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760-1830</i>, New Haven and London: Yale University Press and Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2022, p. 246. "}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Sarah Sophia Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey","id":"AUTH346503"}],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Sarah Sophia Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey","id":"AUTH346503"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"women","id":"AAT25943"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.22-1963"],"accessionNumberNum":"22","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1963,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-05","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}