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Paintings

Lord Henry Spencer and Lady Charlotte Spencer, later Charlotte Nares: The Young Fortune Tellers

Type
Paintings(Opens in new tab)
Date
ca.1774-1775
Accession number
23.62
Maker
Joshua Reynolds(Opens in new tab) (British, 1723–1792)
Sitters
Lord Henry Spencer(Opens in new tab) (British, 1770–1795)
Lady Charlotte Spencer, later Charlotte Nares(Opens in new tab) (British, 1769–1802)
Dimensions
56 1/4 x 44 3/4 in. (142.9 x 113.7 cm.)
Medium
oil on canvas
Description
Lord Henry Spencer, aged about five, stands right of center, full-length, three-quarters left, his left hand, palm up, across his body. His right, gloved hand holds his other glove at breast level. His right leg is crossed over the left, on which his weight rests. Lady Charlotte Spender, aged about six, stands full-length, left of center, three-quarters right, bending toward her brother, her left hand supporting his, her right indicating his lines. The boy wears a black, brimmed hat with pink and white plumes, a Van Dyck falling lace collar, rose doublet with slashed sleeves, rose breeches and shoes, and white stockings. His hair is light brown, his eyes are deep blue. The girl has dark-brown hair, tied under the chin by a white kerchief. Her dress is white, edged at hem and sleeves with narrow, rose-pink binding. Her stomacher, fastened over the shoulders with triple bands, and her overskirt are gold-yellow; her stockings white, her shoes silver with rose rosettes. Three trunks and foliage in the left background; sky behind the children's heads. In the right background, palings before a distant building and round Italian tower.
Credit
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Department
European Art
Find out more
View in the Art Museum catalog(Opens in new tab)
In his portraits Reynolds often experimented with the humorous potential of casting children in adult roles. Here, Lady Charlotte and her younger brother, Lord Henry, parody the popular subject of the gullible young dandy so distracted by the gipsy fortune teller that he fails to notice the theft of his purse. While Lady Charlotte perhaps reads the signs of prospective romance in her brother’s small hand, the viewer envisions the future eminence his aristocratic birth assures him.

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