Portrait of a lady, bust-length, in an elaborate red dress with ermine trim, with a white lace ruff, and pearls in her hair

Astley trained under Thomas Hudson in the early 1740s and was in Italy at the end of that decade, where he briefly studied under Pompeo Batoni. He established a successful practice in London on his return and spent three prosperous years in Dublin after 1756. On his voyage back to England he married a wealthy widow, Lady Dukinheld Daniell, and retired from painting.