''Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons'' (1775) is an

oil on canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest o ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

by Joshua Reynolds. Work began on the picture in 1773, and, in

Grand Manner Grand Manner refers to an idealized aesthetic style derived from classicism and the art of the High Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, British artists and connoisseurs used the term to describe paintings that incorporated visual metaphors i ...

fashion, Reynolds exploited two classical paintings: the attitude of the child on the left was modelled on Cupid in Velázquez's '' Toilet of Venus'' whilst the general composition was inspired by Anthony van Dyck's ''Charity''. The painting passed to Mister Cockburn's son George, and then to his daughter, Mrs Hamilton, the wife of Sir James Hamilton.Great Pictures as Seen and Described by Famous Writers
Esther Singleton, p285, 2007, accessed June 2009 It was bequeathed to London's

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

in 1906.Lady Cockburn and her Three Eldest Sons
, National Gallery, London The painting is one of the few signed by Reynolds: Lady Cockburn's dress bears his signature and the year 1775. Lady Cockburn (Augusta Anne Ayscough, 1749–1837) was the daughter of

Francis Ayscough Francis Ayscough (1701–1763) was a tutor to George III and Clerk of the Closet to his father Frederick, Prince of Wales

and his wife Anne. She married Sir James Cockburn ( ,

Scottish English Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...

: ) the 8th Baronet and became Lady Cockburn of

Langton Langton may refer to: Places ;Canada *Langton, Ontario ;England *Church Langton, Leicestershire *East Langton, Leicestershire *Great Langton, North Yorkshire *Langton, Cumbria *Langton, County Durham *Langton, Lincolnshire *Langton, North Yorkshi ...

in Berwick in 1769.A General and heraldic dictionary of the peerage and baronetage of the British Empire
p268, 1832, accessed June 2009 The marriage was made as the result of a large marriage settlement of twenty thousand pounds which was arranged by her maternal uncle, Sir George Lyttlelton, her widowed mother and her brother George Edward Ayscough. The money was raised on her father's estate and included three houses in London and two farms. Lady Cockburn's first three sons are depicted in the portrait. The first son,

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

(b. 1771), became the 9th baronet and Governor of Bermuda (1811–1819), and her second son,

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

(b. 1772) became an Admiral of the Fleet and the 10th Baronet. Her third son,

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

(b. 1773) became the

Dean of York Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles ...

, and her fourth son, Alexander (b. 1776), became

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

envoy extraordinary and minister

plenipotentiary A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the wor ...

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

and the

Columbia District The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company betw ...

whilst her fifth son, Francis, (b. 1776) became a general after being involved in the early history of Canada as a colony and serving in diplomatic positions in the Bahamas and British Honduras.Cockburn, Sir Francis
Dictionary of Canadian Biography, accessed June 2009] Lady Cockburn's daughter, Augusta, was wed in 1807.

References

{{Joshua Reynolds 1770s in England 1770s paintings Collections of the National Gallery, London Birds in art Paintings of children Portraits by Joshua Reynolds