The sitter is identified in the Silvy daybooks as 'Miss Harriet Carlyon'.

Three Miss Harriett Carlyons appear on the 1861 census; one is only 7 years old and of the other two, one was born in 1789 and the other in 1813. The sitter seen here is probably the Harriett Carlyon born in 1813 at Truro in Cornwall. The census shows her living with her parents, Dr Clement Carlyon (85) and Mrs Eliza Carlyon (80) on Lemon Street in Kenwyn, Cornwall. Her father was also a visitor to Silvy's studio, as was her neighbour John Vivian, the local magistrate.

Miss Harriett Carlyon died, aged 73, in the December ¼ of 1886; the death was registered in the district of Truro.