Elizabeth Craven and Her Children
The writer Elizabeth Craven had seven children while she was married to her first husband, William, Lord Craven. This group portrait shows six of them, and is dated 1777. They are standing in front of an archway of classical design, through which a landscaped park can be seen. It may be that of Benham Place, in Berkshire, where Capability Brown had just landscaped the park for Lord Craven. The painting was in the Craven family collection until sold by Sotheby's in 2013 for only £25,000, which sounds like a bargain to me. Four of the children are standing, one is sitting on a woman's lap and the youngest of all is a baby in the arms of another woman, at the back of the picture. But which child is which? And who are the women holding the youngest ones? Certainly neither is Elizabeth Craven. One identification is easy. The boy in the greenish-blue jacket and yellow waistcoat, with a dog at his side, is Elizabeth Craven's eldest son, William, who l...