George, 3rd Earl Cowper, with the Family of Charles Gore, c.1775 (oil on canvas)

commissioned by George Nassau (1738-89) 3rd Earl Cowper, on the occasion of his marriage to Anne Gore; or by the Gore family to celebrate the marriage of Hannah Anne Gore to George, 3rd Earl Cowper, both seen standing. In 1774 Charles Gore (seated) took his wife and three daughters to Florence, where Lord Cowper, an expatriate collector and patron of the arts, met Hannah Anne, then aged sixteen (both standing). The painting is set in Italy, with a view of Tuscan hills beyond the bride’s mother and sister on the right. Above Hannah Anne is a painted allegory showing Hercules evicting the figure of Envy from the Temple of Hymen, an allusion perhaps to the termination of Cowper’s past love affairs. The musical harmonies produced by Hannah’s sister Emile, playing an early square piano, and her father, who plays the cello, suggest the marital harmony that awaits the newlyweds