Painting of a family group in a conservatory painted in England about 1850

Painting, of portrait proportions, in oil on canvas, of a man, a woman, and three children with a kitten and a Skye terrier-like dog. The man, standing at the back of the group, is dark-haired and bearded, and wears a dark suit with a waistcoat; the woman, seated in front of him with flowers in her hands, has brown hair parted in the middle and wears a pagoda-sleeved purple silk dress with gold buttons and an elaborate lace collar and undersleeves, with a gold brooch, bracelet and rings. All three children wear full-skirted white frocks: the youngest, possibly a boy, has short blonde hair and wears strap slippers and a broad blue and white striped sash and shoulder ribbons. The other two are girls, with light brown hair worn in ringlets: the elder, seated and holding the kitten, wears a gold brooch at the neck of a lace-trimmed high-necked frock with an embroidered tiered skirt and a white cross-over sash; the younger, who is arranging a rosebud in the elder's hair, wears a low-necked lace-trimmed frock with a tucked skirt and red checked sash above pantalettes and black pumps with white lacy socks. They are in a conservatory which has glass doors, and a decorative cast-iron drainage grille in the floor. Two hanging baskets of fuchsias are suspended by the doorway on the left, and a passion-flower trails downward on the right; the group is flanked by plants which include mimulus, camellias,pelargoniums and an arum lily. The doors are open behind the group, showing a garden with a wide lawn, flower-beds, trees, and a summer-house, with a building of gothic appearance rising behind it, and a romanticised landscape beyond a stone balustrade to the right. The painting is set in its original gilded wooden frame with moulded gesso decoration in the shape of stylized flowers and foliage.

Bought at Phillips' Sale of Early British and Victorian Paintings, 20/06/1995 (Lot 89)

It seems likely that the painting was the work of someone with an interest (whether amateur or professional) in horticulture, since the plants are rendered so precisely. The attention to detail throughout (as in the jewellery and embroidery) certainly suggests an artist used to working on a small scale.

English Provincial School (auction catalogue)

The painting shows a man, a woman and their three children with a kitten and a dog. The group’s surroundings (a well-stocked conservatory and a well-tended garden) show not only the Victorian enthusiasm for gardening, but also some of the most popular plants of the period, notably arum lilies, passion flowers and pelargoniums. A conservatory in the house was a status symbol for all but the richest families in Britain in the 1850s.

B.101-1995