Elizabeth Diana Larkan (1790-1852)

A rectangular watercolour miniature on ivory in a carved wooden picture frame, with a gilded slip. An inscription on the reverse reads: 'Elizabeth Diana Larkan, / Daughter of John Larkan Esq, / Commander R.N. Niece of Captn / Robert Larkan Esq of Greenwich Hospital'. The sitter is a young woman shown seated, half-length, on an upright dining chair with an inlaid wooden back. She faces front but with her head turned half to her left and her right arm crooked over the half-visible chairback. She wears a low cut plain gown, probably originally red and possibly with a white lawn outer layer, and with a belted waist and short sleeves. There is a pink coral bead necklace round her neck and her long hair is braided and coiled on top of her head, with short curls at the side. The overall tone is russet, including the background, probably the result of over exposure to light, but her eyes appear to have been green and her hair probably red or auburn. The style of dress indicates a date of about 1825. The sitter, Elizabeth Diana Larkan, born in 1790 in Athlone, Ireland, was the second child and second daughter, (of three), of Commander John Larkan and his wife Elizabeth Knott (see F9607). She never married and latterly appears to have lived in Greenwich with her (probably unmarried) uncle Captain Robert Larkan, who was appointed one of the Captains of Greenwich Hospital in 1818. She died in Maze Hill, Greenwich, on 25 January 1852.