A silhouette portrait of a gentleman with shirt ruffles protruding from the front of his coat. His hair is swept back and tied in a queue with a ribbon. The portrait is painted in black on thick paper. It was originally mounted in a wooden frame (see ZBA4848.2) with a trade label for ‘Mrs Beetham’ at ‘No. 27 Fleet Street’ (see ZBA4848.1). Isabella Beetham (née Robinson) was a leading producer of silhouettes in late eighteenth-century London. Initially, she produced cut-paper silhouettes but, in the mid-1780s, she changed to producing painted silhouettes on paper and glass, after taking lessons in painting and drawing from the miniaturist John Smart. In 1785, she moved to No. 27 Fleet Street with her growing family. Her husband, the actor and inventor Edward Beetham, sold his patented washing mills from a showroom on the ground floor while Isabella – the main earner in the family – set up her silhouette business on the first floor. At this time, Fleet Street and the surrounding area was home to a large number of booksellers, publishers and engravers, bringing together the literary, legal and artistic worlds. Beetham attracted many fashionable clients to her studio, employing a number of assistants to help meet the high demand for her portraits. These assistants included one ‘Mrs Bull’, who probably helped Beetham with her painted work on paper. Many successful silhouette artists in the eighteenth century were women. In this period, women struggled to pursue careers as oil painters because they were not able to access formal training in art academies. However, the production of silhouettes involved craft practices, like paper cutting and sketching, which were regarded as feminine accomplishments and could be learned at home. This enabled entrepreneurial individuals, like Isabella Beetham, to launch profitable professional careers as silhouette artists. The trade label on this silhouette features the date ‘1785’, which refers to the date at which Beetham moved to No. 27 Fleet Street and does not necessarily indicate the date of the portrait. Beetham used this trade label throughout the late 1780s and early 1790s. This silhouette is believed to represent the naval officer George Fowke. It came to the National Maritime Museum together with a collection of personal papers relating to the Fowke family, which can now be viewed in the Caird Archive (see FOW in the archive catalogue). Several generations of the Fowke family served in the Royal Navy. George became a lieutenant in 1790, a commander in 1795 and a post-captain in 1798. He later served in the prison ships ‘Rochester’ and ‘Irresistible’ between 1806 and 1807. He was placed on the retired list in 1825 and made Vice-Admiral (retired) on 12 November 1840. He died in 1843. (Updated April 2019.)