Master William Lamb

The miniatures of the young Lady Georgiana Fitzroy and of William Lamb shows the new importance of children and childhood in eighteenth-century life. As children became an important focus of attention and affection, demand for portraits of children increased. Tokens of affection such as these would have been treasured at home by parents, particularly in the case of a son sent away to school. William Lamb, who appears with his siblings in the print after Reynolds's painting of The Affectionate Brothers displayed in this section, was sent to Eton in 1790, probably around the time this portrait was painted. Lamb, the future Viscount Melbourne, eventually became Prime Minister in 1834.