The Smyths were merchants and were a prominent local family from the sixteenth century. This little girl is dressed in clothes fashionable around 1640 and she is accompanied by an African page boy who is also dressed in rich fabrics. He holds a nest of robins, which may signify the nurture of children or the transience of youth.

Provenance

By descent in the Smyth family of Ashton Court Mansion, Somerset; Sir Greville Upton-Smyth; Dame Emily Smyth, 1901; the Hon. Mrs Esme Smyth, 1914; John E Pritchard & Co, 1947;...;Christie's, London 1991; Weiss Gallery; Frederick W Hughes, New York