Images(5)

Portrait of the Brewster Family of Wrentham

Date1736

Artist Thomas Bardwell (1704 - 1767)

OriginEngland, Suffolk, Wrentham

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 48 5/16 x 57 1/2in. (122.7 x 146.1cm) and Framed: 55 1/2 x 64 1/4 x 1 3/4in.

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. David Stockwell.

Object number1971-3374

DescriptionA group portrait or conversation piece showing seven people gathered around an oval gate-leg table in the center of a room. A closed door at far left and the room's paneling, both painted green, form the backdrop for the sitters. The table stands, opened, on a carpet having a plain green center and a geometric patterned border.

In front of the table, closest to the viewer, a young girl holds a cat in her lap. She wears a single-strand pearl choker and a green gown having a low, square neck and elbow-length sleeves, the sleeves of her white chemise showing beneath them, also a sheer white apron and a white, flower-sprigged cap. She has brown hair and brown eyes. The cat has yellow eyes and is mostly white; black markings appear on his face, and his tail is black-striped. He has a pink ribbon tied round his neck.

At far right, a young woman sits at the table wearing a double-strand pearl choker and a pink gown over a white petticoat, also a white sheer apron and a white cap. She holds several flower sprigs (and another is on the floor beside her). She has dark hair and dark eyes.

Beside her, a boy sits at the table in profile to the viewer, facing left. He wears a blonde-ish (or white) wig (or his own, shoulder-length pale hair) which is curled back from his forehead. His far (proper right) hand is stuck in his white waistcoat, the other resting on the table. He wears a brown coat, brown breeches, white stockings, and white shirt.

Slightly behind and beside him, behind the far side of the table, stands a young man wearing a dark blue coat, dark blue breeches, red waistcoat, white shirt, black neckcloth. He appears to wear a white, shoulder-length wig. He holds a paper in his hand, extending it forward over the table.

Beside him, to the left, sits an older woman in a white shift and dark blue gown wearing a white veil over her head and, over it, a longer, black veil. She holds a book.

Beside her sits a young woman in a blue dress; she has dark hair and dark eyes and wears a white pink-ribboned cap.

Beside her, at far left in the picture, sits a young man in a gray coat, black breeches, white stockings, white shirt, and red, gold-embroidered waistcoat. His proper right arm is bent, his hand resting on his hip. His other (far) hand rests on the table over a stack of papers.

The foreground shows floor boards painted in simulation of perspective. The chairs are Queen Anne style side chairs.

The 4-inch black-painted frame is bolection molded and appears to be a period replacement having a later-added gold-painted liner carved with acanthus leaves or tongues.
Label TextBardwell may have been self-taught, or largely so; the stiffness and misinterpreted anatomy of his figures suggests a naive background. But he was an avid, attentive student, his interest and dedication culminating in the 1756 publication of his _ Practice of Painting and Perspective Made Easy_. In this book, Bardwell drew on recognized authorities for credence in his sections on theory, but his sound technical instructions were almost entirely his own, one nineteenth-century commentator going so far as to call them "the best that have hitherto been published." Ultimately, Bardwell became better known as an author than a painter.

His pictures possess great charm, however. This large-scale conversation piece is his earliest known group portrait. In fact, with the possible exception of a likeness of a Woodton butler, it may be his earliest portrait. Prior to 1736, Bardwell devoted himself to decorative work, depictions of country houses, and the operation of a paint supply business in Bungay. His undertaking of the ambitious Brewster commission marks a signficant turn in his painting career, and the picture has been called his finest work of this type.

Wrentham Hall in Suffolk was home to numerous successive generations of Brewsters until 1797, when the sudden death of the last male heir precipitated its sale to an aunt and a first cousin of the deceased, one "Mrs. Meadows" and a John Wilkinson. In 1810, these persons sold the house to Sir Thomas Gooch, and by 1812, the house had been razed. A label on the back of the painting and Wrentham Parish records suggest that the portrait subjects are the widow and children of one Humphrey Brewster (who may have died the year before the painting was executed). The subjects would appear to be identified as follows, starting with the girl at front center and moving counterclockwise: third daughter Francis, eldest daughter Anne, third son Humphrey, second son William, widow Elizabeth, second daughter Elizabeth and, perhaps, eldest son Phillip. [Phillip was unnamed on the painting label, probably because the picture was created for him.]

InscribedIn dark brown paint in script in the lower left corner is: "T Bardwell/pinxit. 1736." N. B. The capitals "T" and "B" are combined into a monogram.

A paper label adhered to the back of the lower stretcher is torn and only partially legible. It is inscribed in dark brown ink in script: "Brewsters of Wrentham S[uffolk]/[E]liz: (16) 2nd dau: Willi[a]m (18) 2nd son./Elizabeth (50), widow of Hum: Brewster./Humphr[e]y (15) 3rd son./Francis (10) 3rd dau: Anne (23), eldest dau./Painted by T Bardwell 1736". The transcription preceding does not show the exact placement of the digits in parentheses; on the label, some of these are written directly beneath the names to which they refer, in which cases they have been placed immediately following the names in the transcription for the sake of clarity. On the paper label, the "T" and "B" of the artist's name are combined into a monogram [but the hand is not that of the signature on the front of the canvas.]

"11153" is handwritten in ink on a small, blue-bordered, water-adhesive label to the left of the subject identification label cited above.

The number "2367" is written in ink on the back of the upper frame member.

An illegible graphite inscription appears on the back of the lower frame member near center.

For images of the various inscriptions on the labels on the back and on the backs of the stretchers, see shared on netapp3/bhw/staff/bluck/painting inscription.

ProvenanceUndocumented descent within the Brewster family to its last male heir, who died in 1797; to a "Mrs. Meadows," aunt of the deceased; by 1847, with "Mr. C. Meadows" of Great Bealings, Suffolk, England; undocumented changes of ownership to CWF's donor, David Stockwell, in the 1940s.
N. B. Stockwell provided no history of ownership preceding his own. Stockwell to Sharon Nevins, 24 April 1972, states: "there is no information as to when and from whom the painting was originally acquired. We have had it many years as part of a gift inheritance that goes back to the 1940s. There was no individual listing of it at that time other than a gift of household goods."