Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Hester Jane Ogle, 1775/76–1817) and Her Son (Charles Brinsley Sheridan, 1796–1843)

Hoppner's portrait of Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Her Son from 1778 depicts the wife and child of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, author of The Rivals and The School for Scandal — the most celebrated comedies of the period. Hester Ogle was Sheridan's second wife, much younger than him, and the portrait was commissioned at a period when Sheridan was the toast of London's theatrical and political worlds, elected to Parliament in 1780 and becoming a close associate of Charles James Fox. Hoppner's rendering of mother and child in the informal manner of the period gives the composition an air of domestic warmth that coexisted with the social celebrity of the sitter's husband.

The mother-and-child composition is handled with warm, sympathetic tones and fluid brushwork. The intimate interaction between mother and son is captured with natural, unforced gestures, while the warm palette and soft lighting create an atmosphere of domestic tenderness. The technique is confident and fluid, with luminous flesh tones.