This signed English watercolor portrait, dated 1829 and inscribed “Painted by Mr. King,” depicts Hanah Tichbon as a young woman dressed in white, wearing a gold chain and cross and holding a small book. Her carefully arranged hair, fashionable dress, jewelry, and composed expression present the respectable image expected of a young woman in Georgian England.

The reverse tells a very different story.

Written on the back is an extraordinary handwritten record identifying the sitter as Hanah Tichbon, also called Hanah Honsett, born September 22, 1809, and married to Thomas Matcham on October 6, 1829. The notes then follow episodes in her life over the succeeding years. She “left him at Bath,” attended the Brighton races, later “ran away from Sheffets,” and in 1841 “ran away in London and was found.”

The contrast between portrait and inscription gives this small work its remarkable character. On the front is the carefully composed public image of a young Georgian woman. On the reverse is a private record of marriage, travel, separation, and repeated departures, behavior that would have carried considerable social consequences for a woman in early nineteenth-century England.

Portraits of this period often preserve a face while leaving almost everything about the sitter unknown. Here we have her name, birth date, marriage, and fragments of the life that followed. The inscription turns an attractive 1829 portrait into an unusually intimate historical document, one that brings us unexpectedly close to the life of the woman depicted.

Presented in its simple period-style frame, the portrait has the intimacy of a personal object rather than a formal society portrait. Its modest scale makes the handwritten history on the reverse all the more surprising. It is the combination of image and private record that makes this piece particularly compelling and gives it a fascinating presence on a wall, desk, or among a collection of early English portraits.

Dimensions: 6.5″ x 7″ including the frame
Condition: Wear consistent with age and use. Minor age-related wear to the frame and surface. Handwritten inscription on the reverse.
Price: $530
Decoration: Watercolor portrait of Hanah Tichbon wearing white with a gold chain and cross and holding a small book
Material: Watercolor and pencil on card
Style: Early 19th-Century Georgian portrait work
Origin: England
Date: 1829

Notable Details

• Signed “Painted by Mr. King” and dated 1829
• Identified sitter, Hanah Tichbon, also recorded as Hanah Honsett
• Handwritten biographical inscription preserved on the reverse
• Records her birth and 1829 marriage to Thomas Matcham
• Later entries recount a remarkable series of departures and episodes in her life
• Unusual combination of a formal Georgian portrait and a revealing private history
• Particularly compelling contrast between the sitter’s composed appearance and the story recorded behind her portrait