  We report on a study of the classical field theory description of charged
skyrmions in quantum Hall ferromagnets. The appropriate field theory is a
non-linear $\sigma$ model generalized to include Coulomb and Zeeman interaction
terms. We have tested the range of validity of the classical field theory by
comparing with microscopic descriptions of the single skyrmion state based on
the Hartree-Fock approximation, exact diagonalization calculations, and
many-body trial wavefunctions. We find that the field theory description is
accurate for skyrmions with moderate spin quantum numbers ($\gtrsim 10$)
although, as expected, it fails qualitatively for small spin quantum numbers.
