The identity of both the painter and subject of this charming portrait has remained elusive. It has at times been attributed to Francis Cotes, Henry Singleton and Johan Zoffany. The design of the table carpet on the right is very cIose to one that appears in a portrait by Zoffany of 1768. It has also been considered as a self-portrait by the unidentified painter who has paused while drawing the vase of flowers on the table. She holds a porte-crayon, a metal holder designed to take a crayon or chalk – the precursor of the modern graphite pencil. The porte-crayon was indispensable for artists in the eighteenth century.