English, circa 1755-1765

Alistair Sampson, London;

Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, London, in the 1980s;

Where acquired.

This rare three-dimensional family portrait, depicting a couple and their two daughters at tea in their interior, derives from the English tradition of conversation pieces, whose leading painters are William Hogarth, Johan Zoffany and Artur Devis. In a fairly conventional way, the father stands next to his wife, leaning on the back of her chair, while their two daughters, one already a young woman and the other a teenager, sit on the other side, busy eating fruits from a basket on the eldest daughter's lap. At that time, tea was a luxury import reserved for the wealthy bourgeoisie and aristocracy.

The costumes are precise scaled-down copies of the fashion of the time. These richly dressed figurines, with real hair wigs and polychrome eyes, lips and skin, are reminiscent of certain English dolls from the mid-18th century, one of which is in the V&A (London, inv. MISC. 271-1981), and another at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, inv. 53.179.12a).