An exceptionally delicate portrait miniature by Thomas Frye of Ann Newton, better known as Nancy Dawson, the dancer and celebrated beauty who became a sensation of Georgian London. Signed TF and dated 1759, it captures Dawson in the very year that transformed her life. Born Ann Newton, Dawson shot to fame at Covent Garden, London in 1759, when her performance of the hornpipe in The Beggar's Opera caused a sensation. She became one of London's great popular celebrities, celebrated in song and reproduced in prints and various salacious pamplets and stories.  Although the attribution of sitter is from the original collector and auction house (Bonhams) The other contemporary images of the same lady are visually very close. They provide further fascinating comparisons. A portrait of Dawson published by Charles Spooner presents her in the same pose by Sir Joshua Reynolds used for the notorious courtesan Kitty Fisher, placing Dawson within the visual language of Georgian celebrity and beauty. Dawson also wears the same pendant earrings and the same gliimer of a Mona Lisa smile to those seen in Frye's miniature. The artist Frye was an extraordinary figure — painter, miniaturist, printmaker and a founder of the Bow porcelain factory. His work has recently been reassessed through the Dublin Castle exhibition and book Thomas Frye: A Neglected Genius. 2023-24 Here we encounter Nancy or in her private incarnation as Ann at close quarters — young, fashionable and intensely alive — painted at the very moment she became famous. the painting itself is 4.5cms high 3.8cms wide in a later silver and paste frame - altogether 6cms high 5.5wide.  During his career Frye painted the portraits of many members of London society including Jeremy Bentham (1760), and Henry Crispe of the Custom House (1746) as well as for royalty with his later portraits showing the influence of Hogarth, including Frederick, Prince of Wales in Garter Robes (1741)