Elizabeth Scarvell was 15 years of age when this portrait was painted in 1855 by Richard Noble. The elusive artist’s known works are few — the Scarvell family seems to have been his first documented commission in New South Wales. 

Noble’s suite of Scarvell family portraits is particularly impressive for his fine delineation of faces and his attention to detail in clothing, fabrics, lacing, ribbons and jewellery, seen to great effect in the portraits of Elizabeth and her sister, Sarah.