A Family Being Served with Tea, possibly the Carter family
Date:
ca. 1745
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
42 x 55 inches (106.7 x 139.7 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.271
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
portrait | conversation piece | painting (visual work) | piano | pianoforte | teapot | table | food | biscuit | tea | tea set | window | interior | music | women | family | servant | man
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Tea Table - Coffee Table (Milwaukee Art Museum, 2005-02-15 - 2005-06-12)Rococo - Art and Design in Hogarth's England (Victoria and Albert Museum, 1984-04-30 - 1984-12-07)Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 34-35, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)Beatrice Hohenegger, Steeped in History, The Art of Tea , Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, 2009, p. 154, GT2905 .S84 2009 + (YCBA)Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, p. 7, no. 19, N5220.M45 R69 1964 (YCBA)Kate Retford, The Conversation Piece Making Modern Art in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2017, p. 89, p. 90, fig. 72, fig 73 (detail), ND1314.4 .R48 2017 (LC) Oversize (YCBA)Sotheby's sale catalogue : Fine Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Drawings and Paintings : 29 May 1963, Sotheby's, London, May 29, 1963, p. 42, lot 107, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)Sotheby's Sale Catalogue : Fine pictures by masters of the English School and old masters : 12 December 1934, Sotheby's, London, 12 December 1934, pp. 22, 36, lot 110, Film B12 (YCBA)Amanda Vickery, Behind closed doors, at home in Georgian England , Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. London, 2009, pl. 34, HQ615 .V53 2009 (YCBA)Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 54, no. 201, ND466 Y35 (YCBA)
Provenance:
Created by an unknown artist, possibly for Richard Carter (1672-1755) of Chilton, Buckinghamshire, ca. 1740; probably by descent to his son, George Richard Carter (-1771); by descent to his sister, Martha Catherine Carter (ca. 1712-1788) and her husband, Sir Thomas Aubrey (1708-1786); by descent to their son, John Aubrey (1739-1826) of Boarstall, Buckinghamshire, and Dorton, Buckinghamshire and his wife, Martha Catherine (1765-1815) [1]; by descent to their niece, Elizabeth Aubrey (1792-1873) and her husband, Charles Spencer Ricketts (-1867); by descent to their son, Charles Aubrey Ricketts (1814-1901); by descent to his third cousin once removed, Henry Aubrey-Fletcher fourth Baronet, (1835-1910); by descent to his nephew, Major Henry Lancelot Aubrey-Fletcher, sixth Baronet (1887-1969) of Chilton House, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire; purchased at auction by Stanley at Sotheby’s, London, England, December 12, 1934 (lot 110, ‘"Conversation Piece: Group of the Carter Family" by Joseph Highmore’), in "Fine pictures by masters of the English school and old masters" [3] [a]; Nellie Ionides (1883-1962), London, England to at least 1963; purchased at auction by "Bennison" [4] at Sotheby’s, London, England, May 29, 1963 (lot 107, ‘"The Carter Family" by Francis Hayman’), in "Fine eighteenth and nineteenth century drawings and paintings" [b]; acquired by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., 1964; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907-1999), May 1964; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, 1976. Notes: --- [1] Possibly to 1788 if his mother kept it after his father’s death. --- [2] First cousin to John Aubrey, daughter of George Richard Carter (-1771). --- [3] The Aubrey family left Chilton in 1930 thus the sale. --- [4] Possibly Geoffrey Bennison (1921-1984). Citations: --- [a] Sotheby’s. December 12, 1934. Fine pictures by masters of the English school and old masters. https://worldcat.org/en/title/171408034 --- [b] Sotheby’s. May 29, 1963. Fine eighteenth and nineteenth century drawings and paintings. https://worldcat.org/en/title/171442538 ---