Dimensions: support: 737 x 616 mm frame: 980 x 853 x 80 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Stephen Slaughter's "The Betts Family" from the Tate Collections. It's a very formal family portrait. What do you see in it? Curator: I see a carefully constructed image of power and lineage. The patriarch's pose, the women's elaborate dresses... How do they reinforce societal expectations of gender and class in 18th-century Britain? Editor: I didn't think of that. The clothing definitely conveys status, and the women are positioned almost as adornments. Curator: Precisely. And consider the enslaved child depicted in other versions of this painting. What does their omission in this particular work tell us? Editor: It speaks volumes about erasure and the complexities of wealth built on exploitation. Thanks, I'm seeing it in a new light now. Curator: It's crucial to analyze what's present, but also what's deliberately absent.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/slaughter-the-betts-family-n01982
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This small group portrait, or ‘conversation piece’, has recently been attributed to Stephen Slaughter, an exact contemporary of William Hogarth. Seated in the centre, holding her granddaughter, is Mrs Betts. She is surrounded by her two daughters and her son-in-law. Isolated at the extreme left is the physician and dramatist, Dr Benjamin Hoadly. In his hand Hoadly holds a miniature of his deceased first wife, Elizabeth Betts, sister of the two young women in the portrait. Hogarth was a good friend of the Hoadly family and painted their portraits on several occasions, which explains why this painting was originally attributed to him. Gallery label, September 2004
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