Completed British 18th C, except portraits, Dress and Textiles, London: Artists and Subjects, Scotland: Artists and Subjects 37 Could the artist be Gawen Hamilton?

I have spoken to the council. Someone will look at the front and back of the picture and try to find out if there is any other information available.

The 'Illustrated London News' of the 30th December 1933 has a very similar tea party scene by Gawen Hamilton with the title 'Strafford Family'. It's clearly a different family, though.

The collection can add nothing to the scant information already on Art UK. The picture is set into oak panelling and labelled 'Hogarth'. I will attach an image of this when our software developer can confirm that that will not crash the website. I have had no updates on this today.

A book from 1893 (see page 84) indicates that the painting " 'A Family Tea Party,' by Hogarth" was at the Town Hall in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Shakespeare's Land: Being a Description of Central and Southern Warwickshire by Charles James Ribton-Turner, 1893

http://tinyurl.com/mr4d5uu5

Here are a number of works by Hamilton:

https://www.artnet.com/artists/gawen-hamilton/

I am not surprised this was attributed to Hogarth, whom I considered, but his conversation pieces tend to be more polished or less prosaic.

It would be desirable to consult Elizabeth Einberg's 2017 catalogue raisonné of Hogarth's paintings http://tinyurl.com/mrxd2hck to see if this picture is mentioned in it. I do not have access to it, but surely someone in the UK does.

There's an article in the 'Stratford-upon-Avon Herald' of the 17th December 1943 about the attribution by "Mr. Kaines-Smith" to Hogarth of a painting in the Town Hall. According to the "report of the Records and Bye-Laws Committee" [of Town Council], "the painting reputed to be by Hogarth is definitely, in his opinion, genuine, but requires cleaning ..."

The painting can be seen by appointment at any time.

The Hogarth catalogue by Einberg needs to be consulted, and ideally she could be asked, though I tend to doubt this is by Hogarth.

Testing the addition of an attachment: this is the photograph of the picture in its oak panelling.

The attachment shows the painting that I mentioned above (‘Strafford Family’).

Thank you, Marcie. Yes, very similar style (also identical table and similar carpet). Unless our picture is attributed to Hogarth by Einberg, an attribution to Hamilton seems eminently plausible.

Here is that article from 1943 as well as one from 1949 about the placement of this work in oak panelling.

I seems from the 1949 newspaper article that the oak panelling into which the picture is set is of mid 20th century date, although the Town Hall itself dates from the 1760s.

The Mr Kaines-Smith mentioned in the 1943 newspaper piece found by Marcie must be Solomon Charles Kaines Smith (1876-1958), who was an art historian and museum administrator. See below:

https://tinyurl.com/mr34jmdw

Most of what is known about Hamilton comes from the engraver and art historian George Vertue, who was well acquainted with him. Both men were members of the Rose and Crown Club and the Club of Artists in London. Vertue considered Hamilton as superior to Hogarth (in conversation pieces), though he may have been biased by his personal connection with the former.

Evidently, the former attribution to Hogarth was changed to British School at some point. I am trying to get a hold of Einberg's Hogarth catalogue raisonné, which should be of interest.

I procured (via interlibrary loan) Einberg's catalogue of Hogarth's paintings. It does not include this picture, but it notes that Gawen Hamilton's work has been confused with Hogarth's in the past.

I also considered Charles Philips (1708-1747), but the figures in his conversation pieces tend to be less substantial or more miniaturized, stiffer, and more brittle or stilted. For example, https://tinyurl.com/4rcr63jh and https://tinyurl.com/4u6h3x5d

Our picture seems closest in style and feel to Hamilton, notably in https://tinyurl.com/mwup8mx3 and https://bit.ly/35vPEB3

Thus, while British School is perfectly safe, I would suggest "attributed to," "style of" or "possibly by" Gawen Hamilton, with a date of c. 1730s. Naturally, the matter is up to the collection.

This picture reminds me of a work by Gawen Hamilton at the National Gallery of Canada.

https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/thomas-wentworth-earl-of-strafford-and-his-family

My impression from what I read in Einberg's Hogarth catalogue is that early Hogarth conversation pieces have been most often confused with the work of Gawen Hamilton, who was for a time Hogarth's rival in that genre. In other words, in the past, it has been relatively common to take Hamilton's work for Hogarth's, as I believe was the case with this picture (which was formerly attributed to Hogarth).

Clearly, as Jacinto Regalado has set out (3, 11, 15 March 2024), this painting is not the work of William Hogarth.

I have had a look at the National Portrait Gallery file of reproductions of the work of Gawen Hamilton and I also looked more widely. In my opinion, a designation ‘Attributed to Gawen Hamilton’ would be reasonable, given the composition and the nature of the figures. But the painting lacks the crispness of Hamilton’s work, whether because of its early or later conservation history or for whatever other reason. I suspect that it may be difficult to carry this discussion further forward.

Thanks, Jacob. I agree we are unlikely to get any further here and also agree that "attributed to Gawen Hamilton" is reasonably plausible. I think it is probably time for a Group Leader (presumably Thomas Ardill) to make a recommendation for submission to the collection.

Gawen Hamilton's painting 'Family Group', which is reportedly owned by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Virginia), is likely to be his 'Strafford Family'. This link shows it dated c. 1730. It's interesting to see it in colour.

https://tinyurl.com/6yutsvff

https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org

Yes, Marcie, it seems to be the same picture which was apparently in private hands in the UK in 1933, so it was presumably sold and went to the US.

The unusual thing about this conversation piece painting is the figure on the left. He appears to be a gardener presenting the seated man with a flowering plant. I don’t recall such a feature in other conversation pieces of the period.

Perhaps a tulip? Could be around the time or towards the end of tulip mania.

Is it likely that the sitter was the landscape gardener Charles Bridgeman (1690-1738)? That might explain the gardener with the tulip, Jacob. There is no space for the plant pot on the tea table. Tulip mania was from 1634-1637, Anne.

Please see Bridgeman in the key to the sitters in the Gawen Hamilton work at the following link (NPG 1384).
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?mkey=mw00352

Here is the link to that work on Art UK.
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-conversation-of-virtuosis-at-the-kings-arms-156685

The Wikipedia entry for Bridgeman is at the following link.
https://tinyurl.com/4u6xj87h

Bridgeman was not a servant-type gardener but rather a garden designer, meaning someone of clearly higher status, and he would not have been portrayed as the servant in our picture.

I meant that he might have been the older man!

Here is a composite based on this work and NPG 1384.

Oh, sorry Marcie, I misunderstood you. I suppose it's possible, but obviously speculative. I tend to think that Bridgeman, being more of a "personality" or known figure, would be more likely to be shown in company with other such people, as opposed to in his own domesticity.

Interesting idea, Marcie, but I don't find the facial comparison convincing - indeed I would say it is pretty convincing evidence they are not the same man! I also did a composite yesterday (attached) that isolates the two men, amd adjusts the sizes to match; to my eye, even at this low resolution there are striking differences - especially since they are probably by the same artist, and the dates are likely close.

Thanks for the composite, Osmund. I'm sorry that there wasn't a better match.

It was an interesting idea, Marcie, but I never expected that the sitters could be identified. And thank you, Osmund, for the helpful composite. I think we've taken this as far as possible, so now it is up to a Group Leader to present a recommendation to the collection.

Thanks everyone for their great discussion. I am very happy, from a London group perspective, to recommend Jacob's (19/03/2024) suggestion to designate this ‘Attributed to Gawen Hamilton’ in replacement of British School, as suggested by Jacinto.