# A Family Group [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [COQUES, Gonzales]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 64 x 86 cm ## Commentary After the middle of the seventeenth century Coques painted numerous family portraits located in a park or on the terrace of a palatial building. The family groups are usually rather more deeply in the composition than in his earlier works, and the figures are located at different levels in the composition, giving a stronger treatment of space. After 1660 the architectural elements and sculptural ornaments, as, for example, in the Family Group, emphatically express the preference for a more theatrical style. In the present painting the identity of the family has not been established. The youngest child is being pushed along in a 'loopstoel'. The girl on the right plays an instrument which is probably a cittern. The older girl picks roses; because they are the flowers of Venus, the goddess of Love, this action may be a reference to her forthcoming marriage. The landscape and trees in this work are possibly by another artist. ## Related artworks - [Equestrian Portrait of a Couple]() - [Family Group in a Landscape]() - [Family Portrait]() - [Interior with Figures in a Picture Gallery]() - [Portrait of a Young Man]() - [The Notarisation]() - [Young Scholar and his Sister]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()