Self-portrait of Rolinda Sharples with her mother Ellen Sharples

Rolinda Sharples painted this self-portrait with her mother Ellen Sharples in 1816, documenting a remarkable artistic dynasty. Ellen Sharples was herself a painter who had worked in America, and she passed her skills to her daughter Rolinda, who became Bristol's most prominent artist. The double self-portrait celebrates the mother-daughter artistic partnership and asserts both women's professional identities.

Sharples renders both figures with careful attention to individual characterization, using warm palette and natural lighting. The intimate composition of mother and daughter working together creates a document of female artistic collaboration unusual for the period.