Circle of William Hogarth (London 1697-1764)

This particularly sensitive and elegant image was executed circa 1750. Comparable to Hogarth's own production of the 1740s (see, for instance, The Graham Children in the National Gallery, London), the present work was considered to be by Hogarth himself until the mid-1990s. Certainly it was executed by an artist who was fully aware of Hogarth's work, whose interest centered on the direct observation of the sitter, and whose handling of the draperies recalls Hogarth's own freedom in the treatment of such details.