The Lady Frances and the Lady Catherine Jones, Daughters to the Right Hon:ble Richard Earle of Ranelagh

These portraits depict Frances Jones (1674-1717/8), who became the second wife to the Earl of Coningsby, and Katharine Jones, who died unmarried in 1740. They were the daughters of 1st Earl of Ranelagh and are shown in affluent surroundings, being offered a basket of flowers by a black servant boy. The latter was seen as a indicator of social standing and wealth, a position which changed in the late eighteenth century, after the notorious Somerset case in 1772 in which the position of the black servant/slave in Britain was reviewed and revised. There had been a growing black presence in Britain since 1650 with expanding trade links. Some came as servants with their wealthy plantation masters, others were given to sailors on slave ships and then offered as gifts to family in Britain, and many arrived and continued as slaves.

The print was a popular one, produced after a painting by Two Dutch artists who worked together in London, Van der Vaart and William Wissing. The former moved to England in around 1674 where he found work as a painter of portraits, and was employed by Wissing between 1685 and 1687. A number of Van der Vaart's portraits were engraved in mezzotint for the print publisher Edward Cooper. This particular print technique was closely associated with Van der Vaart, who was among its earliest practitioners in England.