Portrait of William Bedford

This painting belongs to a set of eight portraits of members of the Bedford (originally Tubb) family of Acton, London: the father William Bedford (1744-1825) and his wife, and their children.

Hickey is amongst the most interesting and ambitious Irish painters of the 18th century, and he attempts many different genres. These small oval portraits enjoyed widespread popularity with middle-class sitters in the last quarter of the 18th century, and were the speciality of such painters as Francis Alleyne and Hugh Douglas Hamilton. Hickey seems to have painted quite a number of such portraits during his stay in Lisbon and shortly afterwards in London.