James, Kathleen, and William McLaren

Kathleen (b. 1875), Jamie (b. 1878), and Willie (b. 1880) were the youngest of Peter and Sophia McLaren’s five children in Perth, Ontario. (The two older children were featured together in their own large portrait, also by Forster.) All the children are clothed in the formal fashion for their ages, but Willie in particular is notable. He wears a Fauntleroy suit, then a major fad thanks to the popularity of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885). McLaren was a lumber baron; his wealth allowed him to provide his family with material comforts, and afforded him the opportunity to commission a group portrait of this size, and from an artist with the cachet of having studied in Paris. The portrait would have hung in Nevis Cottage, the McLarens’ large stone home on the outskirts of Perth. “I had them on a Daghestan rug with a picture book, which the two elder were supposed to show to the youngest. This made necessary a playoff expression on the face of each suited to age and action. Painter and all were like a group of children at play. When the work was nearing completion I indicated a special mood to be given by James in his particular role. He manfully took the post and expression like a little actor, and held it for a few minutes. When his limit was reached he broke the spell with the smiling exclamation, ‘Wasn’t that good?’ Rewards followed, of course.” J.W.L. Forster, Sight and Insight, 1941 (posthumously) Forster’s account gives us a glimpse, however retrospective, of the genesis of a group portrait of children. His belief in the unaffected nature of children and their ability to ease an adult’s seriousness is manifest in his references to play. Yet his memory of his interaction with the McLaren children reveals the degree to which the artist conceives and directs the tenor of the session and, by implication, the portrait. If this portrait exudes sentimentality, it is the artist who has been able to ensure its effect.