The Graham Children

William Hogarth’s The Graham Children, painted in 1742, shows the four children of Daniel Graham, apothecary to the royal household, in a richly furnished room. The eldest boy holds a musical bird-cage while his sisters cluster around him, the youngest child in a go-cart, and a cat stalks a caged bird on a chair. Hogarth, better known as a satirist, here combines charm, virtuoso detail, and a hint of the moral seriousness that runs beneath all his work.