34 - Attributed to Gawen Hamilton (1698–1737)

Attributed to Gawen Hamilton (1698–1737) Portrait of a Family of Architects Among Ancient Ruins Oil on canvas 59.5 × 71 cm On the back is a label attributing the painting to William Hogarth. Christie’s stencil mark. Provenance: Anthony Storer in 1841 Sale in London, Christie’s, July 7, 1967, lot 124 (attributed to the English School, c. 1745) Collection of Pierre Jeannerat (1902–1983). A London resident, Jeannerat was a collector of English art and bequeathed three of his works to the Louvre. By descent. This painting is a relatively early example of a “conversation piece,” and its style is very similar to the works of Gaven Hamilton (1697–1737), Joseph Highmore (1692–1780), and also to the early works of William Hogarth (1697–1764). The “conversation piece” is a category of English painting, falling between the group portrait and the genre scene, featuring a carefully staged arrangement of the subjects in an intimate setting. What makes this painting unique is that the figures are set against a landscape of Roman ruins, whereas most such works are set indoors or, more rarely, in front of an English garden. This distinctive feature is likely due to the fact that the subjects appear to be artists: the man seated on the left has a painter’s palette and brush at his feet, and an architect’s tools are placed on either side of the composition. On the right, a Corinthian capital and a vase stand out against a Greco-Roman archway in the background. It has been hypothesized that the figures depicted are William Hogarth, his wife, and his father-in-law James Thornill (1675–1734), though this cannot be corroborated. The seated male figure bears a stronger resemblance to Isaac Ware (1704–1766), who was also an architect and a follower of Palladian theories.