Artwork
The Strong Family

The Strong Family is an oil painting by the Rococo painting artist Charles Philips. It dates from 1732 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Nine family members fill a richly furnished room, the adults in wigs, coats, and dresses of blue and red. Children gather at a small card table, one girl reaching for a card, while a bust sits on a shelf against green patterned wallpaper with gold trim. Charles Philips, 1732.
Subject & Meaning
The work captures the subjects in oil on canvas, presenting a snapshot of 18th-century family life that combines portraiture with genre elements.
The Strong Family, painted by Charles Philips in 1732, is a portrait genre work depicting a family group within an interior setting. The composition features a man, a woman, and a girl, explicitly identified as a family unit. A notable element of the iconography is the inclusion of a playing card, which appears alongside the figures.
While the specific symbolic intent of the card is not detailed in the provided records, its presence distinguishes the scene from a standard formal family portrait, suggesting a moment of leisure or domestic interaction. The work captures the subjects in oil on canvas, presenting a snapshot of 18th-century family life that combines portraiture with genre elements.
Technique & Style
The Strong Family is an oil-on-canvas portrait painted in 1732. The work employs the conventional oil medium on a rectangular canvas measuring 75.2 cm in height and 94 cm in width, as recorded in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's catalogue. Its formal composition places a woman, a man, and a girl in an interior setting, engaged in a game of cards, a motif that underscores contemporary portrait conventions of family interaction. The handling of brushwork and colour modelling reflects the Rococo-influenced style typical of early-to-mid-18th-century British portraiture.
History & Provenance
The Strong Family is an oil-on-canvas portrait created by Charles Philips in 1732. The work depicts a family group, including a man, a woman, and a girl, situated within an interior setting where the figures are engaged with playing cards. While the specific commissioning patron and the detailed chain of ownership prior to its current location are not detailed in the available records, the painting is currently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The artwork measures 75.2 cm in height and 94 cm in width. Its creation date is firmly established as 1732, placing it within the early eighteenth-century British portraiture tradition.
Overview
This oil painting, titled The Strong Family, depicts a group portrait of nine individuals within an opulent interior. The composition centers on a family gathering, with adults and children arranged in a formal yet engaging manner. The work serves as a record of the family's presence and status, rendered through detailed observation of their attire and surroundings.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Charles Philips (c.1703–1747) was an English artist known for painting a number of portraits and conversation pieces for noble and Royal patrons in the mid-eighteenth century.


















