Lady Smith (Charlotte Delaval) and Her Children (George Henry, Louisa, and Charlotte)
Sir Joshua Reynolds British
1787
"Charlotte Sophia, daughter of the late Sir Francis Blake Delaval, married Sir Robert Smith, fifth Baronet, in 1776. He had been a member of Parliament for Cardigan borough and later, from 1780 to 1790, would be a member for Colchester; he died in Paris in 1802. Lady Smith died in 1823 and was buried at Versailles. The little boy is George Henry Smith, sixth Baronet (1784–1852), who changed the family name to Smyth. He was a member of Parliament for Colchester from 1826 to 1830 and from 1835 to 1850. Since he had no legitimate children, the baronetcy became extinct at his death. His sisters are Louisa, born in 1782, who married Thomas Este, and Charlotte, born in 1783, who married Charles Este in 1803.
Sir Robert visited Reynolds on February 20, 1787, presumably to commission this portrait. His wife’s first appointment was two days later, and she had eleven sittings in all between February and April 1787; it is not clear how many of them involved the children. Sir Robert paid £162.10.0 in March for “Lady Smith and three children and likenesse for a fancy Child” and the further sum of £152.10.0 in May. The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy that year as Portrait of a lady and three children.
The painting was engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi in 1789 (The Met, 42.108) and by R. Josey in 1880 (see Henry Graves, Engravings from the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. by S. W. Reynolds, and other Eminent Engravers, London, n.d., vol. 7, no. 20). An oval miniature by Samuel Shelley closely duplicates the portrait group but shows Lady Smith without her hat (sold, Sotheby's, London, July 11, 1977, no. 170, ill.).
When the picture changed hands in 1878, it was described as much damaged by damp; afterward it was “carefully restored” (Hamilton 1884). Its condition is compromised by extensive drying cracks, particularly in the dark foliage."
Sir Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723 - 1792)
Lady Smith (Charlotte Delaval) and Her Children (George Henry, Louisa, and Charlotte), 1787
Metropolitan Museum of Art
