Explore the Antecedents of this artwork, The Graham Children.
The Graham Children invited comparison with Anthony van Dyck's The Five Eldest Children of Charles I (1637). Both included animals for comic effect and took care to give each child an individual character. However, while Van Dyck (1599–1641) was commissioned by King Charles I to paint royalty, Hogarth's portraits were mainly of the rising middle class, and he never broke through to become a court painter. Unlike the children of Charles I, there is nothing aristocratic about The Graham Children, despite their affluence, and the allusion to the earlier work may have been a deliberate attempt by Hogarth to flatter his middle class client.
King Charles I Anthony van Dyck