'Mr and Mrs Dalton and their Niece Mary de Heulle', Johan Zoffany

Artwork details

Artist

Johan Zoffany (1733‑1810)

Title

Mr and Mrs Dalton and their Niece Mary de Heulle

Date c.1765-8

MediumOil paint on canvas

Dimensionssupport: 908 x 711 mm frame: 1110 x 908 x 88 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Bequeathed by Alan Evans 1974

Reference

T01895

Not on display

Summary

The sitters are Richard Dalton (?1715-91), antiquarian and minor graphic artist, librarian to George III and from 1778 surveyor of the King's pictures; his wife Esther (née de Heulle, died 1782) whom he married in 1764; and their niece Mary de Heulle, the daughter of Esther's brother Abraham (died 1763) and his wife Mary Magdalen Garnault whom he married in 1758. Their orphaned child (later Mary Agar) was adopted by the Daltons, who were themselves childless. She received 633000 in trust from her grandfather, Abraham de Heulle, a wealthy Huguenot Spitalfields silk-weaver, on his death in 1765, and was named a legatee in her aunt's will of 1775 (proved 1782). Esther holds a tatting-shuttle. The young Mary is beginning a drawing under Dalton's instruction… (read more)