The Gullett sisters were the daughters of Christopher Gullett (1740-1798) of Collins, Bere Ferrers, near Tavistock, mining engineer and clerk of the Peace for Devon. Opie stayed at Collins for six weeks, probably in 1783-4 when travelling with Dr. Walcot (see M. Peter in the exhibition catalogue, John Opie, 1962-3, under no. 23), rather than in 1786 (Jupe Roger, loc.cit), Opie supplied two further canvasses of the same size, the Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Gullett with their youngest daughters, Georgina (Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro) and the Christopher, John and Anne Gullett (illustrated by Earland, opp. p. 88), which was sold to Wertheimer at the same time as the present portrait.

The compositional sophistication of the three Gullett pictures recalls that of Opie's early masterpiece A School (Loyd Collection), exhibited to acclaim at the Royal Academy in 1784, and these are directly comparable in technique with the celebrated series of portraits of the children of the 5th Duke of Argyll of circa 1783, also of 50 by 40 inch format, at Inveraroy.