Robert Gwillym, Elizabeth Gwillym (née Atherton), and Their Family

Arthur Devis, 1712–1787

1745 to 1747

Oil on canvas

Yale Center for British Art

Arthur Devis's 1745-1747 oil painting depicts the Robert Gwillym family, including Elizabeth Gwillym, her husband Robert, their four children, and other relatives, set against a backdrop with felled trees. Elizabeth Gwillym (seated), who must have been born in the second decade of the eighteenth century, was the only surviving child of Richard Atherton of Atherton Hall, Lancashire. All six of her siblings died in infancy, and because her father was the last surviving male heir, the Atherton estate passed to Elizabeth, and thence to her eldest surviving son. Her husband, Robert Gwillym of Langstone, Herefordshire (wearing the tricorn hat), and his father, also called Robert, stand on the left. Her brother-in-law William, a deaf mute, stands on the right. Elizabeth Gwillym's four children (left to right) are baby William, Jane, Robert V