' A Young Gentleman , wearing blue coat and pale yellow waistcoat, his hair powdered ' Samuel Shelley (English 1750-1808) watercolour on ivory . oval 70mm high. Private collection.

Samuel Shelley followed a conventional route into his chosen career but later diversified from the traditional portrait miniature. After studying at the RA schools from 1774(and exhibiting 1774-1804), he became an important voice in the history of watercolour painting in the eighteenth century. A founder member of the first watercolour society in 1805, he believed that watercolours should be given their own forum and exhibition space in order to be properly appreciated. Before the formation of such a society , watercolours could only be shown next to oils at the conventicle exhibition spaces of the Society of Artists or Royal Academy. This new separation from brightly coloured, large oil paintings allowed watercolours to be viewed among paintings in the same media and heralded a new admiration of such work....This portrait of a young man was probably painted in the late 1790's when Shelley was establishing himself as a fashionable miniaturist.