18th Century English Figural Oil Painting by the prominent English Portrait artist James Northcote (British, 1746-1831), and long time student and assistant to the English Master Sir Joushua Reynolds | This work depicts a grandmother reading what appears to by the family bible with her two grandsons in the parlor | Oil on relined canvas | Housed in a low profile period gold gilt gesso wood frame | Approx. Dimensions: 56.5: H x 46.5" W | Notes: James Northcote RA (22 October 1746, in Plymouth – 13 July 1831, in London) was a British painter. He was born in Plymouth, and was apprenticed to his father, Samuel Northcote, a watchmaker. In his spare time, he drew and painted. In 1769 he left his father's work and set up as a portrait painter. Four years later he went to London and was admitted as a pupil into the studio and house of Sir Joshua Reynolds. At the same time he attended the Royal Academy schools. In 1775 he left Reynolds' studio, and about two years later, having made some money by portrait painting back in Devon, he went to study in Italy. On his return to England, three years later, he revisited his native county, then settled in London, where John Opie and Henry Fuseli were his rivals. He was elected associate of the Academy in 1786, and full academician in the following spring.