Artwork
Wedgwood Family Portrait
Wedgwood Family Portrait is a paint painting by the Rococo painting artist George ARA Stubbs. It dates from 1780 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the summer of 1780 George Stubbs worked at Etruria Hall, where Josiah Wedgwood was experimenting with large terracotta plaques.
About this work
Stubbs sketched them first, then painted on big terracotta tiles Josiah Wedgwood made.
George Stubbs painted the Wedgwood family outdoors in 1780. The scene shows them in their garden at Etruria Hall. Stubbs added his own horse in the background, a signature move for him.
The family stands close but feels formal. Stubbs sketched them first, then painted on big terracotta tiles Josiah Wedgwood made. Stubbs usually painted animals, so seeing people is rare.
Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum to see this painting in person.
Overview
In the summer of 1780 George Stubbs worked at Etruria Hall, where Josiah Wedgwood was experimenting with large terracotta plaques. During this period Stubby produced a sizable family portrait on oak panel, depicting the Wedgwood household gathered in the garden. The work combines Stubbs’s renowned equine skill with a rare foray into group portraiture.
Subject & Meaning
The composition presents Josiah and Sarah Wedgwood together with their daughters, Susannah and Mary Anne, arranged informally yet maintaining a formal bearing. A horse, rendered in Stubbs’s characteristic style, appears in the background, linking the family’s industrial pursuits with their pastoral interests.
Technique & Style
Stubbs first sketched the figures before transferring the design onto the terracotta surface, a medium unusual for his practice, which was primarily animal painting. The final image, executed on oak, displays his precise handling of anatomy and a restrained palette, while the figures retain a slightly forceful, less delicate likeness.
History & Provenance
Josiah Wedgwood initially expressed dissatisfaction with the portrait’s likenesses, especially those of his wife and daughters, describing them as “strong, but not very delicate.” Nevertheless, he later acknowledged the work’s merits, noting that it contained “much to praise and little to blame.” The painting now belongs to the Wedgwood Museum collection.
Context
The portrait formed part of a broader collaboration between Stubby and Wedgwood, who also commissioned the artist to paint Josiah, Sarah, and Sarah’s father Richard on ceramic plaques. These pieces, alongside the family portrait, illustrate the intersection of fine art and Wedgwood’s ceramic innovations during the late eighteenth century.
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Artist & collection
Artist
George Stubbs painted lifelike portraits of people wearing fine clothes, often with a background of elegant homes and gardens.
- Sir John Shaw and his Family in the Park at Eltham Lodge, Kent
Sir John Shaw and his Family in the Park at Eltham Lodge, Kent
Conversation Piece (Portrait of Sir Andrew Fountaine with Other Men and Women)
Portrait of Carolina Wilhelmina of Orange (1743-1787) and her Children
The Wilkinson Family
Family Group in a Landscape
Picnic after the Hunt
Hunting with falcons
The Dutton Family in the Drawing Room of Sherborne Park, Gloucestershire
Thomas Lister and Family at Gisburne Park
Family Group in a Landscape
Four stages of human life: Childhood