The Story in the Painting

View a larger copy here.

One Of The Family is one of Cotman's most famous paintings, and depicts a delightful family around a table eating a meal. The models used by Cotman for this scene were an actual family, named Street, who lived in the north of England. The child on the bottom right of the picture emigrated to New Zealand when she was sixteen, and now a whole family of descendants of this child in New Zealand proudly own copies of the painting.

For the benefit of those using braille keyboards that do not pick up photographs and paintings, the description of this painting is as follows:  A family sits at a long dining table, on which is a thick pie of some kind, and something that looks like a plate of cheese. The window is opened and the mother is holding out an apple to a family pet, a horse. In one corner is a Grandmothers, slicing some bread and in another stands a man hanging up his coat. The children are eating with enthusiasm.  Readers can add their own observations in the comments.