Here's our version of the story: a prosperous ship captain, while visiting one of the busy Chinese port cities, found an enterprising artist and showed him one of those new-fangled Daguerreotype images of his sweetheart, and asked if he could paint her portrait. The canvas used by the artist was mounted on a strainer (as opposed to an expandable stretcher), which is invariably attributed to China trade artists.

Later in her life, the lady was cleaned, relined and set in a newer gold frame, measuring 29 " by 32" overall.

Circa 1850.