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William Hogarth, 1697–1764

The Montagu Family and an Unknown Attendant

between 1730 and 1735

William Hogarth helped popularize the small-scale conversation piece in the early 1730s, taking the conventions of full-scale aristocratic group portraiture and making them suitable to patrons from the gentry and middling ranks. The identity of this family has been lost but their home is filled with expensive goods and furnishings such as Chinese porcelain, much of it imported to England through expanding trade networks in Asia and Africa, or made from imported raw materials. The canvas has been cropped slightly on the left, leaving a pair of disembodied hands holding a tea tray. In its original state, the figure serving tea probably represented a young African servant, another sign of this family’s pretensions to refinement and status.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

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William Hogarth, born in London, England, 1697; active in England; died in London, England, 1764, The Montagu Family and an Unknown Attendant, between 1730 and 1735, Oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.58.
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William Hogarth helped popularize the small-scale conversation piece in the early 1730s, taking the conventions of full-scale aristocratic group portraiture and making them suitable to patrons from the gentry and middling ranks. The identity of this family has been lost but their home is filled with expensive goods and furnishings such as Chinese porcelain, much of it imported to England through expanding trade networks in Asia and Africa, or made from imported raw materials. The canvas has been cropped slightly on the left, leaving a pair of disembodied hands holding a tea tray. In its original state, the figure serving tea probably represented a young African servant, another sign of this family’s pretensions to refinement and status.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Commissioned by John Montagu, second Duke of Montagu (1690-1749), from William Hogarth (1697-1764), the artist [1]; by descent to his daughter, Mary Montagu, Duchess of Montagu (1711-1775) and his son-in-law, George Brudenell, first Duke of Montagu (1712-1790); by descent to their son-in-law, Henry Scott, third Duke of Buccleuch (1746-1812), and their daughter, Elizabeth Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch (1743-1827); possibly by whom given to their son, Henry James Montagu-Scott, second Baron Montagu (1776-1845), 1807 [2]; …; possibly Sale, Christie, Manson & Wood, London, England, December 13, 1884, lot 14, 'An Interior with gentleman and ladies at tea' [3] [a]; …; acquired by Sir Frederick Lucas Cook (1844-1920), Doughty House, Richmond, by 1902 [4]; by descent to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook (1868-1939); by descent to his son, Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook (1907-1978); purchased at auction by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, England, March 19, 1965 (lot 101), in "Highly important paintings from the Cook collection" for Paul Mellon (1907-1999) [5] [b]; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1977 [c].

Notes:
[1] George Vertue wrote he saw a portrait "containing four persons only the Duke of Montague & his Dutches–the Lord Brudnal & a daughter of the Dukes lately married" in Hogarth’s studio in 1730 per "Vertue Note Books: Volume III," The Volume of the Walpole Society 22 (1933): 46, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41830356. In a list of unfinished pictures written in January 1731, Hogarth describes it as “Another [family portrait] of five—the Duke of Montague.” See Elizabeth Einberg, William Hogarth: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), 84, https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:13001730. Einberg writes that the sixth figure was likely added later.
[2] A “family piece” by Hogarth was cleaned by Rising in 1809 at Ditton Park, per the Boughton House Archives. The Duchess of Buccleuch gave Ditton Park in Buckinghamshire to her younger son Henry Lord Montagu in 1807 along with works of art, presumably including this one.
[3] Sold as "the Property of a GENTLEMAN [H. Ricketts], deceased; collected about sixty years ago."
[4] When he exhibited it in the 1902 Guildhall Gallery Loan Exhibition as "no. 53 - A Conversation Piece (Probably a Portrait Group)." See A.G. Temple, ed., Catalogue of the exhibition of a selection of works by French and English painters of the eighteenth century (London: Blades, East & Blades, 1902), 55, https://archive.org/details/catalogueofexhib00guil/page/54.
[5] Colnaghi purchased this painting before the sale. The catalog consequently only goes up to lot 100. Lots 101-105 are not listed by artist and title, just lot number and price.
At the far left of this family portrait a small figure with brown hands and dressed in green and red livery holds out a silver tray, on which rests an overturned teacup. Several features of the painting—including its unusual dimensions, compressed composition, and the condition of the canvas—suggest that it was cut down sometime after Hogarth completed it. In its original state, the figure at left was almost certainly wholly visible and probably represented a young African servant.
"Portrait of a Family" is characteristic of Hogarth’s innovative approach to the conversation piece. Rather than arrange his sitters in formal, static poses, Hogarth frequently showed them engaged in an action or event—in this case, the disruption caused by the kitten’s toppling of the yarn basket from the tapestry table. The scene is set within an opulent sitting room filled with expensive goods and furnishings, many of them imported to England through its expanding Asian and Atlantic trade networks or made from imported raw materials, including a silver chandelier and porcelain tea service, and a Chinese vase and lacquer ware cabinet. The now partially cropped servant provides yet another sign of the family’s worldly wealth.
The subject of this vivacious conversation piece is not known, although judging from the elegance of the clothes and the refinement of the drawing-room interior, with its carved marble fireplace and expensive furniture, the group was well connected. The lady at the tea table, the hostess, gently extracts a fine gauze handkerchief from the pocket of the gentleman to her right, while the gentleman on her left lifts the teacup from her saucer. This is intriguing enough, but the affectionate dog that sits in the lap of the gentleman to the far right is obviously pregnant and, in the foreground, a cat pounces on a ball of wool that has rolled out of an overturned workbasket. At the extreme left, the hands of an otherwise invisible black servant offer to the gentleman who converses with the lady at the worktable an overturned teacup on a small silver tray. The meaning of Hogarth's tea party has been lost-and may never have been known by more than the artist, his patron, and a few insiders. It seems doubtful that all the figures here belong to a single family.
In Hogarth’s Portrait of a Family (fig. 3), a small figure with brown hands and dressed in green and red livery holds out a silver tray, on which rests an overturned teacup. Several features of the painting - including its unusual dimensions, compressed composition, and the condition of the canvas - suggests that it was cut down sometime after Hogarth completed it. In its original state, the figure at left was almost certainly wholly visible and probably represented a young African servant. This work is characteristic of Hogarth's innovative approach to the conversation piece. Rather than arrange his sitters informal, static poses, Hogarth frequently showed them engaged in an action or event - in this case, the disruption caused by the kitten's toppling of the yarn basked from the tapestry table. The scene is set within an opulent sitting room filled with expensive goods and furnishing, many of them imported to England though its expending Asian and Atlantic trade networks or made from imported raw materials, including a silver chandelier and porcelain tea service, and a Chinese vase and lacquer was cabinet. The now partially cropped servant provides yet another sign of the family's worldly wealth.

Esther Chadwick, Meredith Gamer, and Cyra Levenson

In a New Light: 500 Years of British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-04-01 - 2026-01-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-10-02 - 2014-12-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Pleasures and Pastimes (Yale Center for British Art, 1990-02-21 - 1990-04-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Conversation Piece - Arthur Devis & His Contemporaries (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-10-01 - 1980-11-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Hogarth - A Selection of Painting from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (National Gallery of Art, 1971-02-12 - 1971-05-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Mark Aronson, Commentary on Portrait of a Family by William Hogarth, [ Website ] , Yale Center for British Art, Accessed 12/1/2015, 15:59 minutes, http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/333/commentary-by-mark-aronson [Website]

David Bindman, Hogarth, Thames & Hudson, pp. 172-173, no. 132-133, NJ18.H67 B56 2021 (YCBA) [YCBA]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 252, 255, fig. 1, N1 .A54 + Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ching-Jung Chen, The early Georgian conversation piece : Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, 2001, pp. 65, 66, 474-75, cat. no. 104, Available online : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses [ORBIS]

Christie's sale catalogue : Highly important paintings from the Cook Collection : 19 March 1965, Christie's, March 19, 1965, pp. 2-3, lot 101, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 120-121, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ellen G. D'Oench, The Conversation Piece: Arthur Devis & his contemporaries, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1980, pp. 6-7, 68, cat. no. 47, NJ18 .D5151 D64 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ralph Edwards, Georgian Conversation Pictures, Apollo, v.105, no. 182, April 1977, p. 252, 255, fig. 1, N1 A54 105:2 + (YCBA) Another copy of this article may be found in a separately bound and catalogued copy of this issue located on the Mellon Shelf [call number : N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA)] [YCBA]

Elizabeth Einberg, William Hogarth : A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven, London, 2016, pp. 83-85, cat. 47, NJ18 H67 +E36 2016 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Elisabeth Fairman, Pleasures and pastimes, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 1990, p. 9, no. 23, DA485 F25 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Figures of Empire : Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2014, pp. 14-15, 41, fig. 3, https://britishart.yale.edu/sites/default/files/inline/Figures%20of%20Empire_booklet_FINAL.pdf [Website]

Figures of Empire : Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2014, pp. 14-15, 41, fig. 3, V 2556 (YCBA) [YCBA]

William Rummel Francis, William Hogarth : A Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Virginia Museum, , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA., January 30-March 5, 1967, p. 23, no. 18, NJ18 H67 +F72 1967 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Jonathan Holloway, Commentary on a Group Portrait featuring Elihu Yale by an unknown artist, , Yale Center for British Art, Accessed 11/30/2015, Passing comments and references, http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/331/commentary-by-jonathan-holloway [Website]

Jonathan Holloway, Commentary on Portrait of a Family by William Hogarth, [ Website ] , Yale Center for British Art, Accessed 11/30/2015, 15:09 minutes, http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/338/commentary-by-jonathan-holloway [Website]

Penelope McElwee, The non-representation of the agricultural labourers in 18th and 19th century English paintings : an exploration into the artistic conventions followed by the aristocracy and landowning classes in representations of the agricultural labourers ..., Newcastle upon Tyne, 2016, pp. 12-13, 16 -17, , fig. 1-1, NX650.L32 M34 2016 (YCBA) [YCBA]

J. H. Plumb, The pursuit of happiness : a view of life in Georgian England : an exhibition selected from the Paul Mellon collection, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 58, 120, no. 126, N6766 Y34 1977 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Kate Retford, The Conversation Piece Making Modern Art in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2017, p. 291, fig. 216, ND1314.4 .R48 2017 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Stuart Semmel, Commentary on Portrait of a Family by William Hogarth, [ Website ] , Yale Center for British Art, Accessed 12/1/2015, 9:14 minutes, , http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/334/commentary-by-stuart-semmel [Website]

Sacheverell Sitwell, Conversation pieces, a survey of English domestic portraits and their painters , B.T. Batsford, London, 1936, pp. 17, 18, 92, pl. 17, fig. 17, ND1314 S5 1936 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Slavery and Portraiture in 18th-century Atlantic Britain, [Website] , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2015, https://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/ [Website]

Angus Trumble, The Finger : A Handbook, , Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2010, p. 81, GT498.F46 T78 2010 (YCBA) [YCBA]

William Hogarth : A Selection of Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon., , National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., 1971, pp. 44, pl. 10, NJ18 H67 U53 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Chi-ming Yang, Commentary on Portrait of a Family by William Hogarth, [ Website ] , Accessed 11/30/2015, 6:31 minutes, http://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/329/commentary-by-chi-ming-yang [Website]

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