A Family Group of Seven Persons Standing on a Terrace 

Editor: Here we have Joseph Highmore's sketch, "A Family Group of Seven Persons Standing on a Terrace." It looks like pencil on paper. The detail is really interesting. What can you tell me about this piece? Curator: This sketch reveals 18th-century production: note the paper's availability, the artist’s practiced hand rendering status through clothing. This wasn't just art; it was labor, a service provided to a specific social stratum. The question is, how does this material reality shape its meaning? Editor: That's a different angle than I was considering. I never thought about the paper. It makes me wonder about the conditions of the artist, too. Thank you. Curator: Precisely. Considering the economics behind the art, we learn more about the final product.