Highmore, Joseph (1682-1780). Conversation piece, including Jane Vigor with family and friends (Joseph Vigor, Ann Vigor, William Vigor and probably John Penn).

Oil painting

Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Tax and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2009

This conversation piece and related embroideries have been accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the V&A.

This painting of the Vigor family was acquired by the V&A in conjunction with the acquisition of related embroideries traditionally worked by Jane Vigor (1699-1783), who is depicted seated at the far left of the painting. See museum numbers T.315-336-2009. It appears that none of these embroideries match the finished example that Jane Vigor is depicted holding.

Historical significance: The painting of Jane Vigor and her family was painted by Joseph Highmore in 1744. Jane Vigor is noted by the Dictionary of National Biography as a travel writer. She was first married in 1728 to Thomas Ward, Consul-general to Russia and agent of the Russia Company. Jane accompanied her first husband to St Petersburg, but was widowed in February 1731. On 23rd November 1731 she remarried Ward's secretary. and successor, Claudius Rondeau. He died in October 1739, and Jane returned to England. On her journey home she was accompanied by William Vigor (d.1767), a merchant and a Quaker, and they married in 1740. This painting was painted four years later, and shows Jane with her third husband, other members of his family and also probably a member of the Penn family (founders of Pennsylvania), also notable Quakers. Jane lived quietly at Taplow and Windsor and in 1775 published Letters from a Lady who Resided some Years in Russia, to her Friend in England.

Mrs Vigor is holding up a piece of embroidery apparently of the same type as those acquired with the present work (museum numbers T.315-336-2009) - worked in worsteds on a beige-coloured wool/silk mix ground - but it is not painted clearly enough to see if it exactly corresponds with these. She is holding it for display and not actually working it - she has no embroidery tools, and would probably have needed a frame. The other lady is knotting silk thread with a shuttle (examples in V&A British Galleries, T.353c-1965 and 560-1907; see their catalogue entries for further explanation of this process). On the table alongside the ball of knotted thread is a small bag for knotting supplies, fastened to the lady's wrist with ribbon - now called a reticule, but not in the 18th century. The men in the painting are depicted with the attributes of books, maps, and a globe. The map is clearly marked "Russia", alluding to the country where Jane met her husband, and where William Vigor and his brother, both standing, also had business interests. The globe may suggest wider mercantile ambitions, and the seated figure may represent John Penn (1700-1746), a co-proprietor of Pennsylvania, with whom the Vigors were on close terms.

At the time of the Acceptance In Lieu offer, the owner's agents identified the sitters as Joseph and William Vigor (standing), their wives, and suggested that the seated male figure represented one of Joseph's sons. However, the old label on the stretcher (see History 2, labels) identifies the latter as 'Mr Pen (the founder of Pensylvania)'. In November 2008, the auction house Freemans of Philadelphia offered a portrait sent through Lyon & Turnbull from Suffolk (England), identified as John Penn (1700-1746), a son of William Penn (1644-1718), founder of Pennsylvania [photocopy on the Departmental object file and Registered File 2009/311]. The features of the sitter in the Freemans portrait and those of the seated male in the Highmore conversation piece are strikingly similar. This suggests that the identification on the old label of the seated man as 'Mr Pen' may be correct.

Although the seated man cannot be William Penn (1644-1718), the founder of Pennsylvania, he could be of one of his four sons by his second wife (see Dictionary of National Biography, William Penn, for his children). William Vigor was an executor to the wills of William Penn's sons; Richard (d. 1771) and John (1700-1746), who were both co-proprietors of Pennsylvania. The similarity of the portrait mentioned above to the seated man in Highmore's painting suggests that both portray John Penn.

Joseph Highmore (1692-1780) trained as a lawyer and was proficient in Latin, but pursued an artistic career like his uncle Thomas Highmore (1660-1720) the King's serjeant painter. From 1725 he was a member of the masonic lodge of the Swan, Greenwich, whose master was the great baroque painter Sir James Thornhill (1675/6-1734), another relative of Thomas Higmore and also his apprentice, who succeeded him as serjeant painter in 1720. Joseph Highmore visited the Low Countries in 1732 and Paris in 1734. He especially admired, and sought to emulate, the work of Sir Peter Paul Rubens. Highmore preferred the company of literary men, such as Samuel Richardson, and in retirement published a number of books and articles, including a discourse on colouring (1765) and a provocative defence of his hero Rubens. His clients came mainly from the wealthy gentry and professional middle classes, and he was especially known for his 'conversations': small-scale group portraits of close family and friends engaged in domestic and convivial ocupations and conversation. The present work is a characteristic example of this genre.

The painting is signed and dated (lower left) "Jos: Highmore / pinx: 1744"

Conversation pieces were small-scale portraits which included close family and friends engaged in domestic and convivial occupations and conversation. This painting is typical of the genre, and although other than Jane Vigor, the identities of the sitters are not certain, their occupations and attributes give a clue as to their interests. Jane Vigor, who was described as "a fine woman; very tall, and perfectly genteel", sits at the left, holding an example of the embroidery of which she was justly proud. The piece shown in the painting appears similar to the surviving examples of her work, but Jane is not actually working it as she has no embroidery tools with her, and the embroidery would have been fixed to a frame during its making. The other lady in the painting, probably Ann Vigor, her sister-in-law, is knotting silk thread with a shuttle. On the table alongside the ball of knotted thread is a small bag for carrying knotting supplies, fastened to her wrist with ribbon. Interestingly, although the three men are depicted with attributes common for men in 18th century portraits - books, maps, and a globe - these have a greater significance in this painting. The map is clearly marked "Russia", alluding to the country in which Jane first met her husband, and in which William Vigor and his brother, both standing, had business interests. The globe refers to their wider mercantile ambitions, and that of the seated figure, who is possibly John Penn (1700-1746), son of the founder of Pennsylvania, with whom the Vigors were on close terms.

E.285-2009