Captain Vincenzo Lunardi with his assistant George Biggin, and Mrs. Letitia Anne Sage, in a balloon

Captain Vincenzo Lunardi with his assistant George Biggin,
and Mrs. Letitia Anne Sage, in a balloon,
painted by John Francis Rigaud, 1785

From J.R.'s Art Place, where he has fascinating details:

Captain Lunardi was a pioneering aeronaut, who with his English assistant George Biggin put on several demonstrations of early balloon flight. This painting depicts one of the flights, but was painted in advance--during the actual flight, the weight of passengers proved too heavy and so only Biggin and Mrs. Sage took part. The painting was probably used to publicize the event.

The flight took off from London and lasted 90 minutes, followed by landing in a field, where Biggin and Sage had to be assisted by schoolboys in fending off an irate farmer angry at the damage to his crops.

As the first British woman to fly, Mrs. Sage later wrote an account of her flight titled "A Letter, Addressed to a Female Friend, By Mrs. Sage, the First English Female Aerial Traveller" that was printed and sold as a pamphlet.