Margaret Callander (née Romer), Lady Callander, and Her Son James Kearney

Jean Laurent Mosnier, 1743/44–1808

1795

Oil on canvas

Yale Center for British Art

A young boy in a dark blue coat and a woman in a white dress stand together. Scientific instruments and a globe are on a table to the left. Margaret Callander (née Romer) was the wife of John Callander of Westertown, Stirlingshire, who served as member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1807, and was created a baronet in 1798. James Kearney was her son from a previous marriage. The portrait shows the boy in naval uniform, with nautical instruments on the table nearby, and may commemorate his leaving home for a career at sea. The French portraitist Jean Laurent Mosnier had served as a miniature painter to Queen Marie Antoinette but fled France as a political émigré after the Revolution of 1789. He worked in London from early 17