Though undated, it depicts Letitia Mary Napier (1814-1839). She holds a Skye terrier, an unusual breed, popularised during the reign of Queen Victoria. It is worth mentioning that Soyer’s studio sale of 1859 included a portrait of “girl nursing a Skye terrier.” The style also accords with two other portraits by Soyer, where sitters are accompanied by dogs. Their heads seem to emerge from a profusion of jagged impasto, painted rapidly and decisively, with two slightly startled brown eyes staring directly at the viewer.