Portrait of Miss Amelia Watts, c.1745-46 (oil on canvas)

This portrait of a Young Girl of the Watts Family dated to c.1745-6, is probably the earliest example of Reynolds portraying a female sitter in classical guise, something that he was to explore more fully later in his career. Miss Watts is presented as Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, who is traditionally depicted holding a posy of flowers and wearing flowers in her hair, and here Reynolds takes this arcadian theme one stage further by giving her a shepherdess' crook. The sitter in this portrait is almost certainly a member of the family of William Watts, a director of the East India Company, who was possibly based in the West Country for a while.