GEORGE ROMNEY (DALTON-IN-FURNESS 1734-1802 KENDAL)

The catalogue of the 1950 Baltimore Museum of Art exhibition identifies this double portrait as depicting the Hawkins children, Caesar and Louisa. It is known that Mrs. Elizabeth Hawkins and her children sat for Romney between 1776-78 (see A. Kidson, George Romney: a complete catalogue of his paintings, New Haven, 2015, p. 291, no. 625) and in that portrait Caesar is clearly older than Louisa. Here, however, the girl is clearly the older sibling, making an identification with the Hawkins children unlikely.