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Thomas Gibson was a leading portrait painter in London. Both a follower and a friend of Kneller's, he was an early director of his Academy and his work was profoundly influenced by the Augustan style in which Kneller worked. He was a close friend of George Vertue and moved in clerical and intellectual circles, painting among others, Archbishop Wake, George Vertue and Locke, and is himself included in a large painting by Smibert, the ''Virtuosi of London*. Many of his paintings of clergymen were engraved, by Vertue and others. Gibson’s main patron was Earl Poulett, for whom he painted a number of family portraits. His last recorded painting was in 1742 when he painted Augusta, Princess of Wales and her four children.

This is an outstanding example of Gibson’s style - linear in design, high and florid in colouring and showing a well-ordered formality typical of the Augustan style of portraiture at the turn of the Century.