An Interior, a drawing by Mary Ellen Best (c. 1838). Best (1809–1891) was a British artist, active mostly in the 1830s, who worked predominantly with watercolours. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she was interested in portraying domestic life in her works, including families at tables, kitchens, and domestic workers. Among her estimated 1,500 paintings are a number of interior portraits such as this; she is known to have painted, among other subjects, images of the drawing room, dining room, and common room of her home in Castle Gate, York.Drawing: Mary Ellen Best