There are only two other portraits of Angelica known today. I was also convinced it was a forgotten portrait of Angelica Schuyler Church. Shelley was famous for painting society beauties of the day, and this one - identified only as a portrait of a lady - is a gorgeous example of his work. Posted by the account of the Philip Mould Gallery in London, this portrait is by the well-known Georgian miniature painter Samuel Shelley (1750-1808). So imagine my surprise when the lovely face, upper left, turned up in my Instagram feed this morning. Characters become very real to me (especially the ones who were real people - I know, weird writer problems) to the point that I half-expect to run into them at the local grocery. To me, she's the older sister of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, the heroine of my historical novel, I, Eliza Hamilton, published by Kensington Books in September, 2017. I've been wallowing deep in my research of the Schuyler and Hamilton families for a good long time now.

She may (or may not) have had an affair with Thomas Jefferson, and she may (or may not) have had one with her brother-in-law Alexander Hamilton, too. She was a patron of artists Benjamin West, John Trumbull, and Maria Cosway. Angelica was admired by gentlemen as diverse as Benjamin Franklin, the Prince of Wales, the Marquis de Lafayette, Whig party leader Charles James Fox and playwright Richard Brinsely Sheridan.

Angelica schelyer quotes