A family piece [graphic]

"A portrait-painter painting a family group of a man and wife and their little boy. The group (right) is raised on a low semicircular platform, the couple sit on a high-backed settee without arms, the little boy on a stool in front of his mother. The child, though in his ordinary clothes, is holding a cupid's bow and a sheaf of arrows (reminiscent of the family portrait in the 'Vicar of Wakefield'); a large quiver holding arrows is slung across his shoulders, a wreath is on his head; he yawns violently. The man, in profile to the left, is obese and wears a short bushy wig, a dove sits on his left wrist; only the toes of his shoes reach the ground. His wife sits on his right holding a dove on her right hand; she turns towards her husband, looking straight forward with a fixed and painful smile; she wears ringlets and a cap of lace and ribbons on her high-dressed hair. The artist (left) stands at his easel which supports a large canvas and is placed close to his sitters. He wears spectacles, a bag-wig, and ruffled shirt, and holds a palette in his left hand. He looks towards his sitters with an insinuating smile, which, together with his attitude and the figure of the man sketched on the canvas, shows that he is intent on flattery. High up on the wall behind him are two oval bust portraits, one (left) of a clergyman, the other of a lady. Behind the sitters is a tall screen of several leaves."--British Museum online catalogue