Paintings Collection

Joseph van Aken (c.1699 - 1749)

Saying Grace

A962; oil on canvas; 35 x 30 cm

Bequeathed by Francis Falconer Madan, 1962; WA1962.17.4

Although best known as a drapery painter, van Aken began his career in Flanders, painting genre pictures. Judging from the accessories, this middle-class interior seems to be English and to date from about 1720, shortly after van Aken had settled permanently in London. He tended to re-employ the same figures and accessories in different compositions. The detail and the figures in this painting reappear in other works.

Information derived from the The Ashmolean Museum index.php/complete Illustrated Catalogue of Paintings.