Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
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Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/stephen-slaughter-498" aria-label="More by Stephen Slaughter" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Stephen Slaughter</a>
Betts Family
Bequeathed by Mrs A. Sealy 1905
actions: postures and motions
adults
Anguish, Anne
Anguish, Edmund
Anguish, Rebecca
architecture
baby
Betts
Betts family
Betts, Anne
Betts, Rebecca
children
clothing and personal items
doctor
dress
family
family
fine art and design, named works
fine arts and music
food and drink
fruit, pear
garden structures
garland
groups
hat, bonnet
Hoadly, Benjamin, Dr
Hoadly, Elizabeth
Hogarth, William, painting, ‘Elizabeth Hoadly’
Hogarth, William, paintings
landscape
literary
man
man, old
medical
named families
named individuals
objects
painting, miniature
park
people
plants and flowers
playwright
portraits
Raper, Anne
sitting
society
standing
widower
woman
woman, old
wooded
work and occupations
<p>This small group portrait, or ‘conversation piece’, has recently been attributed to Stephen Slaughter, an exact contemporary of William Hogarth. Seated in the centre, holding her granddaughter, is Mrs Betts. She is surrounded by her two daughters and her son-in-law. Isolated at the extreme left is the physician and dramatist, Dr Benjamin Hoadly. In his hand Hoadly holds a miniature of his deceased first wife, Elizabeth Betts, sister of the two young women in the portrait. Hogarth was a good friend of the Hoadly family and painted their portraits on several occasions, which explains why this painting was originally attributed to him.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
8 October 2001 – 14 April 2002
2002-04-14
8 October 2001 – 14 April 2002
2002-04-14
2001-10-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-08
The Intimate Image
Collection based display
7 October 2006 – 7 January 2007
2007-01-07
7 October 2006 – 7 January 2007
2007-01-07
2006-10-07
York Art Gallery (York, UK)
http://www.york.art.museum
2006-10-07
The Art of Conversation
Loan-out
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
The Betts Family
support: 737 × 616 mm
frame: 980 × 853 × 80 mm
Bequeathed by Mrs A. Sealy 1905
<p>Stephen Slaughter, the supposed painter of this small group <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>portrait</span></a>, or '<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/conversation-piece" title="Glossary definition for 'Conversation piece'"><span>conversation piece</span></a>', was an exact contemporary of William Hogarth (1697-1764). Indeed, the earliest recorded owner of this picture, Mathew Raper (1741-1826), vice President of the Society of Antiquaries and a Director of the Bank of England, was quite certain that it was by Hogarth. However, while his attribution has since proved to be incorrect, Raper did provide valuable information on the identity of the sitters.

</p><p>In the centre of the picture, seated, holding her granddaughter, is Mrs Betts. To the left, dressed in orange and holding a floral riband, is her eldest-surviving daughter, Anne Betts. At the extreme right hand side, in a blue dress, is her youngest daughter, Rebecca, behind whom stands her husband, Edmund Anguish. It is their baby daughter, Anne (c.1745-1824), who sits in Mrs Betts's lap, and who in later life became the wife of the above mentioned Mathew Raper. It is also her approximate date of birth (she died in 1824, aged 79), that provides the suggested date of 1746 for the present picture. 

</p><p>At the extreme left of the picture, seated cross-legged, is Dr Benjamin Hoadly (1706-57), son of the Bishop of Winchester, royal physician and dramatist. In his hand Hoadly holds 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/m/miniature" title="Glossary definition for 'Miniature'"><span>miniature</span></a> of his deceased first wife, Elizabeth Betts, sister of Anne and Rebecca, whom he had married in 1733. The date of Elizabeth Betts's death is unknown, although it must have been before June 1747, when Hoadly remarried. As Elizabeth Einberg has noted (Einberg 1983, p.416), the miniature held by Hoadly bears more than a passing resemblance to a bust-length portrait by Hogarth, thought to represent Elizabeth Hoadly (maiden name Betts), and which has been dated 1743. In any event, Hogarth was a good friend of the Hoadly family and painted their portraits on several occasions, the principal reason, it may be supposed, that the present picture was also attributed to him. Indeed, it has been suggested (Einberg and Egerton 1988, p.208) that the image of Dr Hoadly in the present portrait was not painted directly from life but from a head-and-shoulders portrait of him by Hogarth (Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales).

</p><p>In the nineteenth century the picture passed from Mathew Raper, who had no children of his own, to his nephew, who died in 1849 at his home in Hyde Park. It then passed to Mrs Anne Sealy, who bequeathed it to the National Gallery in 1879 as 'The Hoadly Family in Hyde Park' by Hogarth. It was transferred to the Tate Gallery in 1919, where it was described simply as 'British School'. Elizabeth Einberg disclosed the real identity of the sitters and provided the present attribution to Stephen Slaughter in 1983. 

</p><p>Although the attribution to Stephen Slaughter is by no means definite, his known portraits, as Einberg remarks, 'exhibit the same dry linear style, fussiness over small features  a somewhat naïve sense of <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/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a>, combined with meticulous attention to detail' (Einberg 1983, p.416).

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Elizabeth Einberg, 'The Betts Family: A lost Hogarth that never was', <i>The Burlington Magazine</i>, vol.125, 1983, pp.415-16, fig.30<br/>Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton, <i>The Age of Hogarth. British Painters born 1675-1709</i>, Tate Gallery 1988, pp.207-8, reproduced in colour

</p><p>Martin Postle<br/>June 2001</p>
Summary
2004-08-18T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="para1">
<span class="text0">This small group <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>portrait</span></a>, or </span><span class="text16">‘</span><span class="text0"><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/conversation-piece" title="Glossary definition for 'Conversation piece'"><span>conversation piece</span></a>’, has      recently been attributed to </span><span class="text14">Stephen Slaughter,      an exact contemporary</span><span class="text0"> of William Hogarth. Seated      in the centre, holding her granddaughter, is Mrs Betts. She is surrounded      by her two daughters </span><span class="text15">and her son-in-law.      Isolated at the extreme left is the physician and dramatist, Dr Benjamin      Hoadly. In his hand Hoadly holds 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/m/miniature" title="Glossary definition for 'Miniature'"><span>miniature</span></a> of his deceased first wife,      Elizabeth Betts, sister of the two young women in the portrait. Hogarth was      a good friend of the Hoadly family and painted their portraits on several      occasions, which </span><span class="text0">explains why this <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> was      originally attributed to him.  </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-09-08T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_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/slaughter-the-betts-family-n01982" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01982</span></a> <b>The Betts Family</b> <i>c.</i>1746
<br/></p>
<p>Oil on canvas 736×615 (29×24 1/4)
<br/>Bequeathed (as by Hogarth) by Mrs Anne Sealy to the National Gallery 1879 (and deposited there from then on), with life interest to her daughter Miss M.N. Sealy (d.1905); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1919
<br/>PROVENANCE ...; Mathew Raper, FRS, in 1817; ?thence by indirect descent to the donor
<br/>LITERATURE Nichols &amp; Steevens, III, 1817, p.182; E. Einberg, ‘The Betts Family: A lost Hogarth that never was’, <i>Burlington Magazine</i>, CXXV, 1983, pp.415–16, fig.30</p>
<p>The sitters are described in detail in Nichols &amp; Steevens 1817, p.182, by the then owner of this <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> Mathew Raper (1741–1826), FRS, Vice President of the Society of Antiquaries and a Director of the Bank of England:
<br/>
<br/>A Family Picture, in which Mrs Betts is represented sitting with a child in her lap. On her right side stands her eldest surviving daughter, Miss Anne Betts; and on her left, is the youngest daughter, Rebecca, married to Mr Edmund Anguish, who stands behind her. He was brother to the Rev. Thomas Anguish, Rector of Deptford, and uncle to the Accountant-General, Thomas Anguish. He was the father of the infant lying in the lap of Mrs Betts, whose name was Anne, and afterwards married the writer of these anecdotes. In the foreground of the Picture, on the right-hand side, Dr Hoadly is represented sitting with a case containing 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/m/miniature" title="Glossary definition for 'Miniature'"><span>miniature</span></a> picture of his first wife in his hand, in order to entitle him to a place in the picture, representing a family to which he had always been much attached.
<br/>
<br/>Mathew Raper was convinced that the picture was by Hogarth, and claimed that his family also owned 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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> by Hogarth of Elizabeth Betts, the lady whose miniature Dr Hoadly is holding and whom he had married in 1733. Her portrait remains untraced, and the date of her death is unknown; the widower remarried in 1747. Raper's information enables one to date the painting to <i>c.</i>1746, as his wife, Anne Anguish (1745–1824), the baby in the picture, appears to be about a year old.
<br/>
<br/>The prominence given in 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> to Dr Benjamin Hoadly (1706–57), son of the Bishop of Winchester, physician to the royal household and popular dramatist, even while setting him respectfully apart from the rest of the Betts and the Anguishes, shows that the family set considerable store by this connection and was particularly desirous of making a visual record of it. It is interesting to note therefore that there is a similarity between Hogarth's head-and-shoulders portrait of the same sitter (now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, repr. Beckett 1949, fig.130) and the Tate Gallery picture that is close enough to suggest that the Tate Gallery likeness was taken from the Hogarth portrait, rather than from the live sitter. The Sydney picture is dated to the early 1740s and is thought to have belonged to the Doctor's brother John Hoadly of Winchester, so that it could have been easily made available for copying.
<br/>
<br/>As Mathew and Anne Raper had no children, their heir was their nephew Felix Vincent Raper, a Major-General in the Bengal Army. He died at his Hyde Park home in 1849, and although there is no mention of the Tate Gallery painting in his will, the name Sealy appears among its administrators, allowing one to postulate a family connection between the Rapers and the donor. Many of the above details could be said to be reflected in a garbled sort of way in the Hogarth attribution (impossible on grounds of style) and the title, ‘The Hoadly Family in Hyde Park’, under which the picture entered the national collection in 1879.
<br/>
<br/>Although there are no securely documented works by Slaughter on this small scale, comparisons with his known portraits on the scale of life (e.g. ‘Sir Hans Sloane’, 1736, at the National Portrait Gallery and ‘John Hoadly, Archbishop of Armagh’, 1744, at the National Gallery of Ireland) show enough similarities in technique to make him the most likely candidate so far.</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/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults Anguish, Anne Anguish, Edmund Anguish, Rebecca architecture baby Betts Betts, Anne Betts family Betts, Rebecca children clothing and personal items doctor dress family family fine art and design, named works fine arts and music food and drink fruit, pear garden structures garland groups hat, bonnet Hoadly, Benjamin, Dr Hoadly, Elizabeth Hogarth, William, painting, ‘Elizabeth Hoadly’ Hogarth, William, paintings landscape literary man man, old medical named families named individuals objects painting, miniature park people plants and flowers playwright portraits Raper, Anne sitting society standing widower woman woman, old wooded work and occupations