Portrait of Frederica Augusta Schaub, Mrs William Lock, with her children William Lock the Younger and Charles Lock
oil on canvas
35.5 x 30.5cm

Provenance:
Presumably by descent through the sitter's granddaughter, Elizabeth Blake (née Lock), Lady Wallscourt (1806-1877),
The Collection of Lord Wallscourt (according to a label on the reverse);
With Sabin Galleries London (as Giovanni Battista Cipriani)

Frederica Augusta Schaub (1750-1832) was the daughter of the celebrated 18^th century diplomat Sir Luke Schaub. In 1767 she married William Lock (1732-1810), a noted art collector and patron who, before his marriage, had travelled with Richard Wilson from Venice to Rome and later employed Giovanni Battista Cipriani, George Barrett, Sawrey Gilpin and Benedetto Pastorini to decorate interiors at Norbury Park which he purchased in 1774.

Indeed, the Locks were artistically very well connected and were both later painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence. It is likely that this intimate portrait was executed by a painter closely linked with the family, such as Wilson or Cipriani, who based the work on earlier Italian models of the Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist; an etching by Cipriani of that subject (see Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1985-52-14400) is close in composition to the present picture.

The two children depicted are William Lock the Younger (1767-1847), who would himself become a successful artist, a pupil and friend of Fuseli, and Charles Lock (1770-1804), later the British consul-general in Naples during the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799. Both sons were also subsequently painted by Lawrence.