Bought with contributions from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and The Pilgrim Trust, 1984
Thomas Coltman (1747 - 1826) of Hagnaby Priory, Lincolnshire, is shown with his first wife, Mary Barlow (1747 - 1786), whom he married in 1769. The house in the background is Gate Burton House, Lincolnshire.
Thomas Coltman was a friend of the painter. This portrait is recorded in Wright's account book as 'Mr & Mrs Coltman, a Conversation (£63)'. Conversation pieces, in which portraits were placed in an attractive landscape setting, or sometimes indoors, were popular in 18th-century England.
