Lady Cockburn and her Children

Charles Wilkin's stipple engraving beautifully captures Joshua Reynolds's "grand manner" style, which elevates both his artistry and his sitter through allegory and quotations after the Old Masters. Adapting his composition from Anthony Van Dyck's painting Charity (1627-28) implies Lady Cockburn's virtue, while the boy on the left's pose is borrowed from Diego Velázquez's Toilet of Venus (1647-51). The intimate grouping and infant's reclining position suggest newly indulgent attitudes toward children and the recent trend for upper-class mothers to breastfeed. When the 1773 painting was later engraved it was re-titled Cornelia and Her Children, linking Lady Cockburn with the Roman widow regarded as the perfect example of virtuous motherhood.