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Notes by the Engraver

The beautiful picture of “Lady Cockburn [pronounced “Coburn”] and her Children” . . . . is painted in the artist’s finest manner and at the ripest period of his career—1775. Here we see Sir Joshua at his best — in his happiest mood. For he loved to paint children, and the beauty of his lady sitter and the importance of the subject must have been an inspiration to him. And it is probable that the artist’s own estimate of the work may be gathered from the fact that he painted his name and the date of its completion on the edge of the lady’s amber-colored mantle where it is joined by the white fur border. It is scarcely noticeable, forming as it does a kind of ornamental finish. In the engraving it is even less so, since it is not possible on so reduced a scale to give more than a hint of it and yet at the same time suggest by bright, coarse lines the glowing quality of the color of this mantle. It was upon this occasion, while thus adding his name, that Sir Joshua remarked to his sitter: “ I shall be handed down to posterity on the hem of your Ladyship’s garment.” He repeated the compliment when he painted the famous Mrs. Siddons as the “Tragic Muse." The great actress, conceiving it to be a piece of classic embroidery, went a little nearer to examine, when the artist, bowing, said: “I could not lose this opportunity of sending my name to posterity,” etc. She smiled in acknowledgment of the compliment. When the picture of Lady Cockbum, upon being finished, “ was taken into the exhibition-room,” says Cunningham, “such was the sweetness of the conception and the splendor of the coloring that the painters, who were busied with their own performances, acknowledged its beauty by clapping their hands.”

The coloring of the whole is glowing and mellow; the curtain behind the figures — drawn partly aside and disclosing a peep of landscape with warm gray clouds — is a rich maroon in tone, and floats gently down into the deep, soft tones of the background shades, that give relief to the delicious peach-colored garment of the boy, who is partly kneeling on his mother’s lap, and to the still more delightful amber-colored mantle of the mother, which falls over her knees, and which glows as though from some hidden warmth of its own. The quality of the tone of the white fur which borders this mantle, and melts into the exquisite white about the mother’s breast, and this again into the pearly and rosy tints of the flesh, is quite indescribable from the way it is all bound together in one harmonious fusion. A pronounced note of color, and one which serves to give value to the rest, is that of the parrot,— or more properly macaw,— the upper portion of which is a red and the lower blue, relieved against the warm gray tones of the marble column behind.

This macaw, by the way, was often painted by Sir Joshua and introduced into his portrait-subjects. Northcote, a pupil and biographer of Reynolds, tells us how the bird used to fly in fury at the picture Northcote painted of the housemaid who had to clean after the bird, and between whom and it no love was lost. Sir Joshua frequently repeated the experiment, putting the picture down where the bird was, who always flew at it and attacked it with his beak. [46-47]

Bibliography

Old English masters engraved by Timothy Cole. London: Macmillan, 1902.

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Last modified 8 May 2016