The identity of the sitters in The Popple Family is most convincingly established by Elizabeth Einberg in her catalogue of the works of William Hogarth as representing four siblings from this prosperous mercantile and colonial family. Three Popple brothers are arranged in discreet order of seniority: in the middle and standing highest is Henry (date of birth unknown but probably the eldest), who was Clerk at the Board of Trade and Plantations in 1727 and published a map of the British North American Colonies in 1733; to his right stands Alured (1699-1744), appointed secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantations in 1730 and Governor of Bermuda in 1737-44; sitting on a bank on the right is their younger brother William (1701-64), who was a playwright and poet as well as Solicitor to the Board of Trade and Plantations and Governor of Bermuda (1747-63). Alured fishes, with the help of his wife, Mary (1704-73), and daughter, Marianne (1724-99); at the extreme left sits their sister, Sophia (1704-78), with an owl perched in a tree above her head. Einberg suggests that she may have commissioned this family group prior to one or more of the brothers’ departure for colonial service. This would then explain the following item in her will: ‘to my Niece Marianne Mathias [the little girl here married one Vincent Mathias] I leave my [meaning ‘her’?] ffathers and Mothers picture painted by Hogarth’. Marianne’s grand-daughter Marianne Skerrett (1793-1887) was dresser and secretary to Queen Victoria to whom she bequeathed this painting, along with the identification of her grand-mother but unfortunately none of the other sitters.

One of the earliest of Hogarth’s conversations this work betrays the awkwardness of a self-taught painter: the figures are isolated and the composition rambling. The brothers seem to be engaged in some sort of debate, with William pointing to what appears to be an illustration in his book. However, the only really successful element of narrative is in the family group fishing, with a patient mother consoled by her affectionate sister-in-law, and an excited daughter, who has presumably had the idea of storing the bait in her father’s hat, a piece of comic seasoning typical of Hogarth’s later conversation pieces. The landscape is wilder than the man-made parklands of the day and suggests the remote wildernesses which the brothers were already involved in mapping and administering. The temple may be dedicated to Minerva, goddess of wisdom, whose attribute is the owl and who seems an appropriate deity for a family of merchants and colonial governors.

Signed and dated: Wm Hogarth: pinxt 1730

Text adapted from The Conversation Piece: Scenes of fashionable life, London, 2009