The Sharp Family

When Zoffany started this in 1779, one man in it had spent ten years writing against slavery. Granville Sharp had published in 1769 what the National Gallery calls the first major anti-slavery work by a British writer, and in 1787 he would become the first chairman of the society for abolishing the slave trade. Here he is one of a musical family out on the Thames aboard their barge, the Apollo, named after the god of music. His brother William, a London surgeon who commissioned the picture, raises his hat at the top beneath a red standard. Judith plays an archlute, Elizabeth sits at the harpsichord, and Granville holds a pair of flageolets. The concert never happened quite like this, since each sitter posed separately. The picture is on loan from a private collection, and the church tower on the far bank is All Saints, Fulham.