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Notes

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The identity of these men in a fashionable interior has been lost, all except for the figure sketching from the floor. That is a self-portrait of Francis Hayman, whose bust by Roubiliac is shown nearby. These men are clearly of the highest social rank and exude all the trappings of prosperity: a Persian carpet, a marble mantelpiece with a painted landscape and ormolu ornament in the French taste, a Chinoiserie screen, the latest table and chairs of mahogany imported from South America, a silver wine jug, and clothes embroidered with silver and gold thread. Britain's wealth by this date was fuelled by booming exports to colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and through the profits of the deplorable transportation of enslaved Africans to labour in plantations in those colonies.

Title

Portrait of a Group of Gentleman, with the Artist

Date

1740–1745

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 111.8 x W 142.2 cm

Accession number

B1981.25.325

Acquisition method

Paul Mellon Collection

Work type

Painting

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