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Stephen Adye was born on St. Kitts, a British sugar island the Caribbean Lesser Antilles (1745). These islands producing sugar with brutal slave labor were the most valuable real estate on the planet. They generated huge fortunes for plantation owners in Britain. Stephen was adopted while still young by Ralph Willett, a first cousin of his mother. Thus becoming Stephen Willett. Such intra-family adoptions were not uncommon into the early-20 the century. He was educated at Lincoln's Inn, this was one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and were trained for the Bar. He did not have a major career and followed his father into a gentlemanly life of leisure and collecting. He married Clara Payne, his first marriage. He commissioned George Romney to paint his children in his last important decade of his lengthy career. Romney's prominence and fee he could command, testifies to the family's affluence. This is one of many examples of Romney's dominance of portraiture. The children are beautifully depicted with a simplicity and not exaggerated style. Here we see the oldest boy clearly dominating over his three siblings. One art historian cuts to the heart of Romney's success, "Romney avoided delving into the character or sensibilities of the sitter. His great success with his society patrons depended largely on just this ability for dispassionate flattery." The children here visited Romney’s studio several times during the production of this impressive work. We see 6-year-old John, the eldest son and heir, hovering over his two siblings: his elder sister, Anabella, and his younger brother, Henry Ralph. John wears a bright red skeleton suit--fairly standard at the time for children of well-to do families. In the 19th century, subdued colors would become more common. Also common were frilled open collars. Skeleton suits were the first specialized boys' garment. John has long uncurled hair. Note the long pants. Men at the time wore knee breeches. Anabella and Henry wear white empire dresses. Their father died (1795). As adults, John Willett Willett Jr. (1784–1839) was declared a lunatic. His younger brother Henry Ralph Willett became a barrister to whom the Willett estate passed. The fortunes of the English sugar barons were affected by the British emancipation of slaves (1834). The painting is held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the internet display, the Museum tells virtually nothing about Romney or the children, but instead provides us a woke lecture on slavery.
Stephen Adye was born on St. Kitts, a British sugar island the Caribbean Lesser Antilles (1745). These sugar islands producing sugar with brutal slave labor were the most valuable real estate on the planet. Sugar generated huge fortunes for plantation owners in Britain. St. Kitts was one of the smaller sugar islands, but produced its share of fortunes. The greatest producer was French held Saint Domingue, modern Haiti. Stephen was adopted while still young by Ralph Willett, a first cousin of his mother. Thus becoming Stephen Willett. Such intra-family adoptions were not uncommon into the early-20 the century. He was educated at Lincoln's Inn, this was one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and were trained for the Bar. He did not have a major career and followed his father into a gentlemanly life of leisure and collecting. He married Clara Payne, his first marriage. He commissioned George Romney to paint his children in his last important decade of his lengthy career.
Romney's prominence and fee he could command, testifies to the family's affluence. This is one of many examples of Romney's dominance of portraiture. The children are beautifully depicted with an simplicity and not exaggerated style. Here we see the oldest boy clearly dominating over his three siblings. One art historian cuts to the heart of Romney's success, "Romney avoided delving into the character or sensibilities of the sitter. His great success with his society patrons depended largely on just this ability for dispassionate flattery." By the 1890s, Romney's star was beginning to fade because of his fiocus ion Enmma Hart, but clearly he was still capable of very imopressive works.
The children here visited Romney’s studio several times during the production of this impressive work. We see 6-year-old John, the eldest son and heir, hovering over his two siblings: his elder sister, Anabella, and his younger brother, Henry Ralph. There is no sign of the mental illness that woukd affect his as an adult. He wears a bright red skeleton suit--fairly standard at the time for children of well-to do families. In the 19th century, subdued colors would become more common. Also common were frilled open collars. Skeleton suits were the first specialized boys' garment. This portraot is especially useful because of the detailed tratment of his skeleton suit. Niote all the brass buttons. We are not sure about the material, but it could be satin. John has long uncurled hair. Note the long pants. Men at the time wore knee breeches. Anabella and Henry wear white empire dresses.
Their father died (1795). As adults, John Willett Willett Jr. (1784–1839) was declared a lunatic. His younger brother Henry Ralph Willett became a barrister to whom the Willett estate passed. The fortunes of the English sugar barons were affected by the British campaign against the slave trade (1807) and emancipation of slaves (1834).
The Willett painting is held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the internet display, the Museum tells virtually ignores its priceless possession and obligation to educate the viewer and tells us nothing about Romney or the children, but instead provides us a woke lecture on slavery, as always in an thinly veiled effort to tells us how evil America, Britain, and Western Civilization which produced these masterworks were. The Museum says almost nothing about the painting in its haste to establish its all impotent woke credentials. Instead we are told, "Shortly after this painting was completed, the children’s father inherited from a cousin two sugar plantations on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. These estates, which benefited the children depicted here, depended on the stolen skills and labor of enslaved Africans for the grueling work of planting, tending, and harvesting acres of sugar cane. In 1834, when Britain abolished slavery in its colonies, 351 people living and working on the Willett family property were emancipated." Now there is no doubt that slavery was both incredibly evil and brutal. But who does no know that? What is largely untold is what was really unfolding at the time Romney executed this portrait. The American Republic launched in North America was changing the history of mankind. First the American Revolution was the first nation where the average Joe rather than monarchs and aristocrats governed themselves. Second and less known is that the new American Republic was the first nation in history in which the man who farmed the land could actually own the land he tilled. There is no doubt that slavery was evil, but throughout history it affected a relatively small part of the population. Most of humanity was not enslaved, they were reduced to the life of a landless peasantry with few rights and only a limited share of the agricultural abundance that they produced. This was the situation beginning in Sumeria at the dawn of civilization and continued into the 19th century until the American Republic first championed the rights free labor. Of course the woke voices so prominent today will say, what about slavery in America. But of course while incredibly brutal, slavery in America never involved much more than 10 percent of the population. Is it really fair to condemn the nation that after 10 millennia created the first spark of free labor only got it 90 percent correct, especially when the rest of the world persisted in societies dominated by a landless peasantry into the 20th century.
Watson (1985).
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