Stunning Little Portrait of a Woman with Red Hair & Shawl but I am not convinced Queen Victoria would have approved.

THE STORY - I walked through the door of my favourite local Antique Shop and my eyes instantly fell on her and I knew I loved her, and after confirming that she was painted on card, there was no question she was coming home with me. I think it is the combination of the beauty, the drama and the intrigue of the piece that has gripped my heart. The portrait is small measuring approx 10.5cm in height by 8.5cm and I imagine is painted with gouache on card and I think she is very finely painted, with her beautiful long red hair blowing to the side her red shawl falling down from one shoulder exposing her white dress underneath marrying the whiteness of her skin and how I love the painting of her hand with this long tapered fingers. And she has those pale blue eyes looking up into the distance with the use of blue paint to highlight her white skin and dress. She is painted in front of a very dramatic dark background shot through with orange almost like the reflection of a fire. The portrait sits in what I think would be its original deep gold coloured painted wooden frame with a small gold coloured slip. On the back of the frame there is some verso but sadly not all of it is legible. It reads Lady Jenkinson by G. L. ????? under which is the name Catherine in later hand as well as some very, very faint pencil script which I can only make out the name Campbell with a torch. There was indeed a Lady Catherine Jenkinson (23 July 1811 to 5th December 1877), about whom I can find little information apart from the fact that she must have been part of the circle of Queen Victoria (before she was Queen) as I found 3 pencil portraits of her drawn by Victoria one in 1833 and two in 1836 which were drawn in Ramsgate which is only a few mile from the Antique Shop . She married Col Francis Venables-Vernon-Harcourt in 1837. But although the portraits of her show a young attractive woman I find it hard to imagine a woman from the circle of Queen Victoria being the model for this portrait which I have to say very much makes me think of The Pre-Raphaelites I just can't balance it in my head. The painting almost certainly dates to the 1800s but because of my confusion over her identity I am struggling to which decade, if she is queen Victoria's Lady Catherine Jenkinson I feel certain this portrait would date to the 1830s, but if she is not that Lady Jenkinson my instinct would be date the portrait to circa 1850 from the sharing of its motifs with the Pre-Raphaelites.

AGE - Circa 1830 or Cica 1850

CONDITION - The painting is in very good condition with the colours still strong. The frame too is in good condition although there are some chips to the paint on the side and there is what looks like a black splat of paint on the front of the frame which can best be seen in the second photo and the paper on the back is old and dry and the verso has faded. There is also a tiny mark on the glass in the frame whose reflection can best be seen in the fifth photo.

DIMENSIONS (Approx) - Framed - Height 8" / 20cm, Width 7" / 18cm, Depth 1&1/2" / 4cm. Image Size - Height 4&1/8" / 10.5cm, Width 3&3/8" / 8.5cm

Still I cannot shake off the thought that my beautiful Young Lady could not be the one whom Queen Victoria sketched, as this portrait seems to me embody more the Spirit of The Pre-Raphaelites or the Movement of Victorian Gothic and I really don't think Queen Victoria would have approved of that, or maybe it is her and that is why I couldn't find any other references to her and Queen Victoria after 1836 because Victoria did not approve.