William, Charles & Elizabeth

This adorable portrait depicts three young siblings: William, Charles & baby Elizabeth. William, aged 4, is wearing a skeleton suit over a shirt with a frilled collar, brass buttons attaching his jacket to his striped trousers. Charles, aged 2¾, has not yet been breached so he’s still wearing a dress. Normally children’s dresses were of white muslin but Charles’s is orange with pretty details on the sleeves. The youngest child, rosy-cheeked Elizabeth aged 1½, is wearing a traditional white muslin dress with a matching cap teamed with coral beads to keep her safe from evil spirits.

The portrait is housed in a gold-plated frame that is also glazed reverse to charmingly show 3 small locks of hair laid on cream silk. The portrait is accompanied by a loose card partially inscribed with the children’s names and ages and signed by the artist, W. S. Lethbridge of 96 Strand, London.

The son of a Devon farmer, Walter Stephens Lethbridge (1771/2-c.1831) was initially apprenticed to a house painter but, realising that he preferred painting people to houses, he attached himself to an itinerant portrait artist and made his way up to London. Lethbridge subsequently established a portrait studio on the Strand and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1801 and 1829 before retiring back to his native West Country.