Sir John Cotton and Family

This three-quarter length group portrait presents Sir John Cotton, in black, seated to the left, with Lady Cotton, in a gold dress, to the right. Between them stands their son John, wearing a brown cloak. On the right their daughter Jane, in maroon and blue, carries a basket of flowers to her mother. The group is set against a sculptural fantasy, including a fountain with putti and a dolphin, beyond which is a wooded valley with a cascade. This work is one of Lely's finest portrait groups. in the international portrait style of the later 17th century, which derived from Van Dyck. Painted towards the end of the Commonwealth, it pre-dates the widespread popularity of the style resulting from its adoption by the French and English courts in the early 1660s.