Lot 135: Charles Hayter (British, 1761-1835) Mrs George Hayter (née Sarah Milton), wearing ochre-coloured dress, the bodice frogged with braid, white lace collar, her brown hair curled, plaited and upswept, red drapery behind, an archway with a distant

Mrs George Hayter (née Sarah Milton), wearing ochre-coloured dress, the bodice frogged with braid, white lace collar, her brown hair curled, plaited and upswept, red drapery behind, an archway with a distant landscape to the left.
Ormolu frame within papier-mâché frame, inscribed on the reverse Miniature of Mrs Hayter/ presented to/ Miss Georgiana Hayter/ by her Father/ painted by/ Her/ Grandfather/ 1814/ 1816 - Sept.
Rectangular, 82mm (3 1/4in) high

In 1809 George Hayter secretly married Sarah Milton, a lodger at his father's house (he was 15 or 16, she 28), the arrangement remained secret until around 1811 and together they had one daughter, Georgiana (recipient of the present lot) and two sons, William Henry who was blind and Leopold (named after Hayter's patron Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld). Around 1816 his wife left him, for reasons which are not apparent and the children initially were put in the care of their grandfather, the miniaturist Charles Hayter, painter of the present lot. George soon began a relationship with Louisa Cauty, daughter of Sir William Cauty, with whom he lived openly for the next decade despite not having sought a divorce from his first wife. Together they had a son, Angelo Collen (after Hayter's pupil Henry Collen) in 1819. The label attached to the reverse of the present lot suggests that the portrait may have been passed from Georgiana to her half-brother Angelo, although this would seem a little odd, given that it was a portrait of his father's first wife, not his own mother. However, since Angelo's mother committed suicide by taking arsenic in 1827, perhaps Sarah, who was still Hayter's legal wife became like a mother to her children's half-brother.