If I call flipx on the spriterenderer of an image, why doesn't the sprite attached to the image flip?

I have a strange issue related to the flipX varialble of a sprite renderer.

Consider the following code:

         leftImageSpriteRenderer = leftImage.GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>();
         if (leftImageSpriteRenderer != null)
         {
             Debug.Log("Found the sprite renderer");
             leftImageSpriteRenderer.flipX = true;
         }
         leftImage.sprite = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath<Sprite>("Assets/Portraits/character_portrait.png");

My expectation would be that the character portrait would be flipped along the X axis. However, while the sprite appears, it is not flipped. IS the problem that I'm flipping the spriterender component and referring the sprite in the parent image object?

Thanks for your attention!