The Gascoigne Family

Maker Francis Hayman (British, 1708-1776)

Collections

British Paintings

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1740

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions39 1/2 x 49 3/4 in. (100.3 x 126.4 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Label TextThis portrait has traditionally been identified as representing a family of the name of Gascoigne, but the specific identities of the individuals are unknown.

Informal group portraits such as this (known in the eighteenth century as "conversation" pictures) operate under the appealing fiction that we glimpse the sitters almost by chance, as they go about their everyday domestic amusements. Generally executed well below life-size and with close attention to detail, they offer an engaging alternative to the stately abstractions of grand-manner portraiture. The shared social activities (such as tea-drinking) that help unify the figures as a cohesive group also purport to provide intimate insights into the people represented, defining them not only by the way they look, but also by the way they ostensibly live: the recreations they pursue, the possessions they own, and the manner in which they comport themselves. Yet despite their charming absorption in the objects and activities of daily life, conversation pictures are no less artificially contrived than other modes of portraiture. On the contrary, because of their complex nature, they are particularly reliant on social codes and artistic conventions in order to convey the desired impressions about the groups they represent.
Hayman's painting of the Gascoigne family illustrates the elaborate codification that characterizes such portraiture. Although it has not been possible to identify the particular Gascoigne family represented, their modest mode of dress suggests that they are members of the middle class, the social stratum that provided Hayman with the majority of his portrait commissions. A more exceptional aspect of the painting is the fact that Hayman has splintered the family members into two groups, separated by a distinct gap at the center of the canvas. Each of the groups is emphasized by a vertical accent: a door at far right frames the standing man, and a folding screen at left encloses a pyramidal group of three figures. The base of the pyramid is provided by the seated man and woman. The oldest figures in the painting, they are presumably the patriarch and matriarch of the family. The advanced age apparent in their faces is reinforced by the man's old-fashioned long bob wig and sober dress (consisting of a plain brown woolen suit with unembellished linen collar and cuffs) and by the woman's simple gown of unpatterned silk and outmoded cap tied beneath the chin with "kissing" strings. The young man standing behind the seated figures is presumably their son. His public reading of a letter imbues him with a slightly worldly air, recalling the reading youth in mortarboard and academic gown who stands behind his seated father in Hayman's portrait Jonathan Tyers with his Family of 1740. The woman standing at far left in the present portrait may be a family member of lesser status, as she is the only female still on her feet and appears to be pulling her own chair to the table. Like the elderly woman beside her, she wears a cap with kissing strings tied under the chin, making her appear older and less fashionable than the two seated women opposite her, whose modish headgear resembles a round-eared cap.
The most fashionable person in the portrait is the man standing at far right, who wears a dashing mole-colored frock coat with velvet collar and deep cuffs over a short buff-colored vest and crimson breeches. His eye-catching clothing and the framing device of the door give him visual emphasis comparable to that of the patriarchal group opposite him. His confident, commanding pose further manifests his authoritative position in the company. In light of these factors, his separation from the patriarchal group seems likely to indicate that he is a son-in-law, elder son, or other close relation who has established his own independent household. The proprietorial manner in which he rests his right arm on the chairback of the woman seated beside him suggests that she is his wife. Her manner of dress reinforces the connection between the two; she is the only woman wearing jewelry (sapphire and gold earrings) and Hayman has lavished particular attention on the dazzling silvery-white satin of her gown, applying pure white highlights over gray paint in order to create an impression of shimmering opulence. The woman's special status is further indicated by the fact that she is the first person after the aged parents to receive a bowl of tea, and by her prominent placement near the front of the pictorial space. Significantly, she and the man standing behind her are the only figures whose bodies are shown in their entirety, uninterrupted by intervening furniture. Hayman's prioritized treatment of the pair reveal them as the principal subjects of the portrait, and perhaps the patrons who commissioned it.
The family's engagement in the social ritual of tea-drinking provides a conspicuous demonstration of their gentility. The curious manner in which the two seated women at right exchange a bowl and saucer exemplifies the highly scripted behavior required at the tea table. Balancing the saucer on their thumbs, they grasp the rim with one or more fingers, ensuring that the full length of their hands remains attractively on display. The tea set was the most expensive object in most middle-class households, and here the fine china and elegant utensils boast of the good taste and worldly substance of the sitters. Like most of the teaware used in England during the 1740s, the blue and white porcelain bowls and saucers are Chinese exportware, but the brown stoneware tea pot is more unusual, featuring an oblong, hexagonal shape and an elaborately interlacing, serpentine handle. It is unlikely that these specific items actually belonged to the Gascoigne family, however, for Hayman relied on studio props and his own imaginative inventions for the furnishings and architecture represented in his portrait interiors. Indeed, the unusual teapot, together with the Turkish rug, reappear in his painting Grosvenor Bedford with his Family and Friends of c.1741-42 (private coll.), while the table, chairs, and folding screen recur in the portrait of Jonathan Tyers with his Family of 1740.
Hayman probably orchestrated the complex arrangements of The Gascoigne Family in a drawing prior to taking up the final canvas, as he did in his roughly contemporaneous portrait, Grosvenor Bedford with Family and Friends. The choreography of gestures and poses would have presented his principal challenge, but he has met the difficulty with a finely calibrated sense of balance. Particularly striking are the mirroring actions of the woman in green standing at left and the woman in white seated opposite her, both of whom gesture with a lowered hand, rotating the palm upward and extending the index finger. The intention of these framing gestures may be nothing more than to display the women's graceful comportment while also re-directing our attention from the peripheries of the composition back toward the center. However, David Solkin has suggested that the gestures may be pictorial codes for speech, intended to supply the crucial missing element in this convivial scene: the conversation. The use of "speaking" gestures enabled portraitists to suggest the figures' engagement with one another, while retaining the frontal orientation of the heads that ensured intelligible likenesses. This delicate balancing act accounts for some of the awkwardness often found in conversation portraits. The Gascoigne Family shows Hayman struggling to shake off the stiffness of the figures and to relax the artificial quality of his obviously staged groupings. Later in his career, he would perfect the flexible poses and animated expressions that begin to appear here, and which instill this early portrait with a refreshing air of congenial informality.

Status

On view

Object number57.8