Portrait of Mr and Mrs Coltman by Wright of Derby

Acquisition of double portrait of Thomas Coltman (1747 - 1826) of Hagnaby Priory, Lincolnshire, and his first wife, Mary Barlow (1747 - 1786), whom he married in 1769. The house in the background is Gate Burton House, Lincolnshire. Thomas Coltman was a friend of the painter. This portrait is recorded in Wright's account book as 'Mr & Mrs Coltman, a Conversation (£63)'. Conversation pieces, in which portraits were placed in an attractive landscape setting, or sometimes indoors, were popular in 18th-century England. Oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm.