Maria Mathilda Bingham with Two of her Children

Unknown artist

The English portraitist Thomas Lawrence was a master in this type of informal family tableau. In this portrait, the father, Henry Baring, is missing. Judging by the direction of the gaze of Maria Mathilda Bingham and her son, he must have stood on the left. Maria divorced her husband and then had the painting reduced on that side. Presumably this was done by the artist, who then painted a curtain to close off the composition.