Portrait of Mrs James Peter Fector of Dover, with her son Peter (b. 1787) and daughter Mary Frances (b. 1791), full-length

Francis Alleyne specialized in small-scale portraits in oil and often in oval format. This charming conversation piece is more ambitious than most of his compositions. It was painted circa 1791-1792 and shows Mrs James Peter Fector, née Frances Lane, with her four-year-old son, Peter, and her baby daughter, Mary. Frances was the daughter of Thomas Bateman Lane, four-time Mayor of Dover between 1770 and 1800 and Lieutenant of Dover Castle. In 1783, she married the banker, James Peter Fector, a partner in the family firm of Fector & Minet. Here, their son, Peter, rests his hand on his mother’s knee, while with the other he holds up a doll to entertain his sister, Mary, who gazes at her mother. The elegant little doll may not be a mere toy, but a ‘fashion doll’, sent from France to England by the Parisian dressmakers to showcase the latest in fashionable dress. As prominent Dover merchants and bankers, the Fectors were well placed to receive news from the Continent before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 put an end to easy communication.