Exhibited in 1768 at London’s Free Society of Artists, Romney’s portrait of the Leigh family is a highly accomplished example of the artist’s skills as a portraitist. The group in this painting comprises Mr Jarret Leigh (1724–69), who was a proctor in Doctors’ Commons and an amateur artist, with his wife and six children. The family’s fine attire, the furnishings and the neoclassical-style setting attest to Leigh’s status as a prosperous middle-class gentleman.