Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-hogarth-265" aria-label="More by William Hogarth" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">William Hogarth</a>
Strode Family
Bequeathed by Rev. William Finch 1880
adults
animals: mammals
book - non-specific
businessman
Cecil, Anne, Lady
clergyman
dog - non-specific
dog, pug
domestic
domestic
eating and drinking
fine arts and music
group
groups
groups
interiors
kitchen
leisure and pastimes
living room
man
military
named individuals
objects
people
picture
portraits
reading, writing, printed matter
religious
servant
Smyth, Arthur, Dr
soldier
Strode, Colonel
Strode, William
tea caddy
tea party
tea set
trading and commercial
woman
work and occupations
<p>Hogarth's early success as a painter was based on his exceptionally lively small-scale 'conversation pieces', or informal group portraits, which became fashionable in the 1730s. They reflected the move away from the solemn formality of the previous generation and attempted to show the sitters in easy, natural poses, in a domestic setting, engaged in everyday activities like conversation or drinking tea. The main subject here is the wealthy city magnate William Strode, seated at table with his new wife Lady Anne Cecil, his relative Col. Strode, and his tutor Dr Arthur Smyth, later Archbishop of Dublin. The paintings on the wall are reminders of their recent tour of Italy. On the floor is the tea caddy.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
1 January 2001 – 25 January 2013
2013-01-25
1 January 2001 – 25 January 2013
2013-01-25
2001-01-01
Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK)
http://www.vam.ac.uk
2001-01-01
Long term loan
Loan-out
18 October 2006 – 7 January 2007
2007-01-07
18 October 2006 – 7 January 2007
2007-01-07
2006-10-18
Musée du Louvre (Paris, France)
21 May 2007 – 26 August 2007
2007-08-26
2007-05-21
CaixaForum Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www3.lacaixa.es
2006-10-18
Hogarth
Loan-out
7 February 2007 – 29 April 2007
2007-04-29
18 October 2006 – 7 January 2007
2007-01-07
2006-10-18
Musée du Louvre (Paris, France)
7 February 2007 – 29 April 2007
2007-04-29
2007-02-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
21 May 2007 – 26 August 2007
2007-08-26
2007-05-21
CaixaForum Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www3.lacaixa.es
2007-02-07
Hogarth
Exhibition
12 October 2007 – 31 October 2010
2010-10-31
12 October 2007 – 31 October 2010
2010-10-31
2007-10-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-10-12
Hogarth and London
Collection based display
31 March 2012 – 16 September 2012
2012-09-16
31 March 2012 – 16 September 2012
2012-09-16
2012-03-31
Rijksmuseum Twenthe (Enschede, Netherlands)
2012-03-31
18th Century British Portraits
Loan-out
16 November 2012 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
16 November 2012
2012-11-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-16
Gallery 16
Collection based display
20 October 2014 – 31 August 2015
2015-08-31
1 May 2015 – 31 August 2015
2015-08-31
2015-05-01
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (Bristol, UK)
http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk
2014-10-20
Hogarth display
Loan-out
24 October 2014 – 26 April 2015
2015-04-26
20 October 2014 – 26 April 2015
2015-04-26
2014-10-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-10-24
William Hogarth
Collection based display
The Strode Family
frame: 1126 × 1175 × 98 mm
support: 870 × 915 mm
Bequeathed by Rev. William Finch 1880
<div class="text">
<p>William Hogarth’s lively small-scale ‘conversation pieces’ (informal group portraits) were fashionable in the 1730s. They show the sitters in natural poses, in a domestic setting, engaged in everyday activities like conversation or drinking tea. William Strode, depicted here, was a wealthy London businessman. He sits next to his tutor Dr Arthur Smyth, later Archbishop of Dublin. Also depicted is Lady Anne Cecil, recently married to William, and his relative Col. Strode. On the floor is a tea caddy. Strode’s family made its money through trading shares in the South Sea Company, which trafficked enslaved people.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hogarth-the-strode-family-n01153" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01153</span></a> <b>The Strode Family</b> <i>c.</i> 1738
<br/></p>
<p>Oil on canvas 870×915 (34 1/4×36)
<br/>Bequeathed to the National Gallery by the Revd William Finch 1884; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1951
<br/>PROVENANCE Presumably painted for the sitter, and first recorded in the possession of his son William 1782; on his death 21 July 1809 (<i>d.s.p.</i>) inherited by his widow Mary (<i>née</i> Brouckner, widow of Admiral William Clement Finch), and on her death 6 October 1813 by the eldest son of her first marriage, the Revd William Finch; bequeathed by him to the National Gallery 1880, with life interest to his sister Charlotte (d.1883); entered the National Gallery 1884
<br/>EXHIBITED RA Winter 1884 (38); AC tour 1946 (1); Tate Gallery 1951 (40); Manchester 1954 (18); BC tour 1957 (32, repr.p.79); BC tour 1960 (5); Tate Gallery 1971 (104)
<br/>LITERATURE Nichols 1782, p.362; Nichols &amp; Steevens, I, 1808, pp.424–5: Nichols 1833, pp.375–6; H. Cotton, <i>Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae</i>, Dublin 1848, II, pp.25–6 (for biography of Arthur Smyth); Dobson 1907, p.207; S. Sitwell, <i>Conversation Pieces</i>, 1936, p.12, pl.20; Davies 1946, pp.68–9; Beckett 1949, p.46, no.93, repr.; Baldini &amp; Mandel 1967, p.100, no.88, pl.XXVII (col.); Antal 1962, pp.40, 51, 204, pl.62a; T. Pignatti, <i>Pietro Longhi</i>, 1969, p.44, fig.15; Paulson 1971, I, pp.205, 455, 458, fig.175, II, p.3; Webster 1979, pp.81–2, 97, 127, repr. in col. p.90
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<p>The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> is first described by John Nichols in 1782 as ‘A Breakfast-piece, preserved in Hill-Street, Berkeley-Square, in the possession of William Strode, Esq. of Northaw, Herts. It contains <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> of his father the late William Strode, Esq., his mother Lady Anne (who was sister to the late Earl of Salisbury), Colonel Strode, and Dr Arthur Smyth (afterwards Archbishop of Dublin). Two dogs are introduced, one belonging to Mr. Strode, the other (a pug) to the Colonel's’. Nichols &amp; Steevens call the Colonel ‘Mr. Samuel Strode’ and add the name of Jonathan Powell, the butler. As the information clearly came from the sitter's son, it can be regarded as reliable.
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<br/>William Strode (<i>c.</i> 1712–55) of Ponsbourne Hall, Herts., came from a wealthy and well-connected family of South Sea brokers. He married Lady Anne Cecil (1711–52), eldest sister of the 6th Earl of Salisbury, 4 February 1736 (<i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, VI, 1736, p.109, pagination defective in some volumes; the groom is wrongly named Thomas Stroude). Their son William was born 23 July 1738, and both the absence of children and the style of painting suggest a date of <i>c.</i>1738.
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<br/>Seated on the far left is Dr Arthur Smyth (1706–71), eighth son of Thomas, Bishop of Limerick, who was to rise through many preferments to become Archbishop of Dublin in 1766 (further details of his career can be found in the manuscript catalogue entry by Lindsay Stainton and Julius Bryant for a later <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pastel" title="Glossary definition for 'Pastel'"><span>pastel</span></a> portrait of Smyth by Thomas Frye, in the collection of the Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood). He gained an MA at Oxford in 1729, and was with Strode in Venice in 1733, at the same time as the Marquess of Salisbury, Strode's future brother-in-law. This transpires from a letter dated 19 May 1737 (Salisbury archives, Hatfield, Gen.29/28) in which Strode refers to Smyth as ‘my most Intimate Friend’, and asks the Marquess to bestow on him one of the many livings in his gift.
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<br/>In 1740 Smyth was in Italy again, this time as tutor to the young William Cavendish, Lord Hartington, later 4th Duke of Devonshire (<i>Walpole's Correspondence</i>, XVII, pp.10, 15–16, 23) and it may be that it was through his agency that Lord Hartington had himself painted by Hogarth on his return to England (743×622, 29 1/4×24 1/2, signed and dated 1741, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; Bindman 1981, pl.93 in col.).
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<br/>The pictures on the wall - a large Salvator Rosa-type <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a>, a small view of Venice, perhaps by Guardi, and another small landscape in the style of Gaspard - are suitable reminders of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/grand-tour" title="Glossary definition for 'Grand Tour'"><span>Grand Tour</span></a>.
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<br/>When the painting was cleaned and X-rayed in 1984, it became apparent that the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> had undergone considerable changes (fig.32). The book-case at the back of the room had originally been conceived as a formal pedimented doorway with two oval paintings hung high on the wall on either side; the one on the left seems to have been a portrait, that on the right (now clearly visible through the underpaint) a flower piece. The lofty barrel vault had been painted to some degree of finish before being partly covered with the curtain on the left, and the table was first painted without a table-cloth. The greatest changes, however, were to the figures themselves; William Strode orginally leant slightly forward over the table towards the right, apparently looking towards his brother, who raised his arm high above Lady Anne's chair. This was not originally covered by her skirt, as the outline of its curved leg can be seen under the rim of the table. The butler stood well to the right of where he stands now, his head touching the centre of the lower edge of the large painting on the wall, and if he was pouring water into the teapot, he was doing so with his right hand, and not with his left as he is now. The dense painting of the three central figures suggests that they were painted particularly thickly to cover the earlier composition, which may have been altered to include William Strode's new wife.
<br/>
<br/>The Gallery archives have a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> of a three-quarter length portrait owned in 1967 by the Wesley Home for the Elderly, Baltimore, Maryland (gift of Miss Purnell), said to be of Lady Anne Strode and attributed to Hogarth. Stylistically it looks more like a work by Thomas Frye of <i>c.</i>1745–55, but the likeness to Lady Anne is reasonably close. She is shown holding a fan and wearing a black shawl over her head.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton, <i>The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675-1709</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, II, London 1988
<br/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: mammals book - non-specific businessman Cecil, Anne, Lady clergyman dog - non-specific dog, pug domestic domestic eating and drinking fine arts and music group groups groups interiors kitchen leisure and pastimes living room man military named individuals objects people picture portraits reading, writing, printed matter religious servant Smyth, Arthur, Dr soldier Strode, Colonel Strode, William tea caddy tea party tea set trading and commercial woman work and occupations