Emma Richmond (1797-1880) was the daughter of the miniature painter Thomas Richmond (1771-1837) and his wife, Anne Oram (1772-1860). A comparable miniature of the artist's son, Thomas Richmond Junior, as a child holding a toy, and a miniature of the artist's sister, Mrs S. Peech, née Richmond, were exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1929 (lent by Mrs G. H. Wollaston).
Thomas Richmond was a cousin of George Engleheart who painted a similar miniature of his niece, Millicent Dillman Englheart, holding a kitten in her lap (see D. Foskett, A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters, London, II, illustrated pl. 101, no. 277).