Riunione a Wanstead House

Around 1730 a new kind of portrait was catching on in England, the conversation piece: a small informal group picture that showed a family at ease in its own rooms rather than posed one by one. This is one of Hogarth's earliest attempts at it, painted about 1731. He packs the ballroom of Wanstead House, then one of the grandest homes near London, with the wealthy Child family and their guests taking tea and playing cards, probably marking Lord and Lady Castlemaine's 25th wedding anniversary. Look for the small joke Hogarth builds in: Lady Castlemaine at the card table turns to show her husband the winning card, the ace of spades, a nod to their partnership. Wanstead House itself was pulled down a century later, its contents sold to pay off a family debt.