42/2006

Paintings, Prints and Drawings

Group portrait, possibly of the Brewster Family, in a domestic interior, oil on canvas, signed by Thomas Bardwell and dated 1736. It is in a carved pine frame with a gilded finish and acanthus leaf and flower bud decoration. The frame is not original to the picture and was made in England in c.1665-1725.

Group portrait, possibly of the Brewster family, in a domestic interior

painting
oil painting

42/2006

On Display

Thomas Bardwell (artist)

1736 (painted)

Georgian (1714-1837)

paint
canvas

painted

Painting, oil on canvas in a carved, gilded pine frame.

This group portrait or conversation piece depicts a family group sat around a tripod table in a unostentatious and relatively plain interior. In the background there is a fireplace flanked with framed prints and wall sconces. Above the fireplace there is a framed landscape picture. The table is placed on a carpet. On the table there is a wicker basket containing sewing materials. One of the female sitters is shown sewing while another holds out a pink rose to a small black and white dog under the table. The small boy is shown standing and holding an open book. The composition of the figures shows a clear gender division with female figures on the right and male figures on the left. The stance of the boy is distinctive and relates to suggestions set out in Francis Nivelon's The Rudiments of Genteel Behaviour published in 1737.

tripod table
sconce
corner chair
carpet
fireplace
print
door
panelling
sewing accessory
book

Height: 123cm
Width: 147cm
Height: 101cm
Width: 124cm

doors
floor treatments
seating
tables
pictures
textiles
wall treatments
fireplaces
images of rooms
images of living rooms
needlework
pets
reading
candle and rush lighting

Label text for the digital interactive located in the Reading Room (September 2015- June 2017):

Group portrait, probably of Francis Brewster, a linen draper, and his family
By Thomas Bardwell
Oil on canvas, dated 1736

This painting is an example of a ‘conversation piece’, a form of informal portraiture which typically showed its subjects in a stylised or rural setting. It is rare to find a surviving eighteenth-century portrait of this type which shows identified middling sitters in a domestic setting, but we know that the people shown here are the Brewsters of Beccles, Suffolk. The portrait was probably painted after a smallpox outbreak in the area and shows the surviving members of the family, Francis Brewster and four of his children.

Label text for the exhibition At Home with the World, Geffrye Museum (20 March 2012- 9 September 2012):

Group portrait, possibly of the Brewster family
Oil on canvas, signed by Thomas Bardwell, England and dated 1736

The central focus of this painting is a tripod table very similar to the one shown nearby. This piece of furniture had strong associations with politeness, and the family gathered around it is shown engaged in refined behaviours like sewing and reading. The simple but good quality furnishing and relatively plain interior is in keeping with the social and moral values of the people depicted.
Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund, the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the Geffrye Museum

Painting is out of copyright.
The photograph is in copyright to the Museum of the Home