This portrait of Elizabeth Rouse (1774-1849), wife of Richard Rouse (1774-1852) of Rouse Hill House in the Parramatta district of New South Wales, was made just two years before her death at the age of 75. It is one of a pair commissioned by Rouse from William Griffith, a local Parramatta artist who in the 1840s enjoyed a reputation as 'an excellent likeness painter', particularly renowned for his crayon portraits. The Rouse portraits are modest and unpretentious, seeking to capture their likenesses for posterity rather than their status within colonial society. [ref: Joan Kerr, ed.
The dictionary of Australian artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravings to 1870 Oxford University Press, 1992, pp.326-327]
The Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, has a mourning brooch containing a portrait miniature of Elizabeth Rouse, watercolour on ivory, which is apparently derived from Griffith's portrait: MIN 77.
