An Angling Party

Edward Smith (fl. in Fowey 1740-1773). Oil painting on canvas, An Angling Party by Edward Smith (fl. c.1740-1773), transcribed signature on lining canvas: Ed. Smith/ at Fowy/ Cornwall. inv. and Pinxt/1773. A group of figures in a park with fishing rods. Figures seated at a table, one sketching the lace on the other's sleeve, a man in right foreground, black servant in right foreground. Possibly a portrait of the Willyams family outside their Cornish mansion, Carnanton, before its 19th-century transformation. A group of figures in the foreground of a formal garden consisting of six figures depicted in almost a straight line; on the far left a young lady in an ivory silk gown is seated at the table making a sketch of the sleeve of an older lady in a pink silk gown, her powdered hair dressed very high and seated on the other side of the table, the latter is resting her right hand on the arm of a gentleman in a pale silk suit with a tricorne hat who stands between them leaning on the back of the lady’s garden seat, his legs crossed looking down on the lady sketching, the three other figures to the right of this group consist of two gentlemen and a lady, holding fishing rods in their hands. The young gentleman on the right also wears a tricorne hat, his fishing rod tucked under the right arm and dangling a fish on a line in his right, the lady in the centre wears a pale cream silk dress and holds her rod with both hands the older gentleman on the right, wears a shoulder length powdered wig, his rod tucked under the right arm and his hat tucked under his left arm. In the foreground on the right, at the left side of a tastefully arranged broken pieces of masonry is a negro servant, a young boy in green and pink livery with a small white silk hat, he leans forward over a pond, occupying the centre to right foreground, chasing a duck in flight. In front of this group are the edges of two formal ponds edged with green (?) marble, the left-hand one with two water-lilies. In the background of the six figures, from the centre to the left are three groups of trees, and a couple of classical urns with lids. In the background, on the far right, is a stone staircase with a row of statues on each side leading up to a terrace on which there is an imposing classical house. Wimpole, Cambridgeshire (Accredited Museum)