The Three Graces, c.1765 (oil on canvas)

The statue group of the Three Graces, Euphrosyne, Aglaia and Thalia, who were said to represent beauty, charm and joy were found in the Villa Cornovaglia in Rome and restored in 1609. They are now in the Louvre, Paris. This is one of a set of eight paintings of celebrated classical antique marble statues from ancient Greek statuary, painted in grisaille (grey-green monochrome colour) by Louis-Gabriel Blanchet in 1765 with the addition of niches, pedestals and trees. The set was probably commissioned as souvenirs, by John Parker, MP (1734/5–1788) during his Grand Tour of Italy, with his first wife, in 1764, and may have occupied a garden building at Saltram.