TREES IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY 3: 18TH CENTURY

This famous couple, Mr and Mrs Robert Andrews (painted by Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1748) are showing off their fine clothes, up-to-date land management, and (in Robert's case) sporting prowess (Mrs A may be meant to have a dead pheasant on her lap). The oak tree behind them would have been useful for the Royal Navy - but the Andrewses never harvested it, and it still survives today as the 'Auberies Oak'. It probably signifies the longevity of a family that owns the same estate over many generations.

The younger oaks to the right hint at a 'family tree' and the children they might expect to have.

​In Room 35, there are several portraits of landowners, and just about all of them are shown against oak trees.

George Stubbs painted the Melbourne and Milbanke Families, c. 1769, against a very ancient oak. The painting records the marriage of Elizabeth Milbanke (extreme left) to Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne. (extreme right). Between the couple are Elizabeth's father and brother. 

Looking at the painting, you might assume that the Milbankes had this oak on their land - therefore they must have been there for many generations. But Stubbs used the same tree in a portrait of the Pocklington family! So did he have a drawing of an actual tree that he had seen, and use it as a kind of studio prop?

This tree could be several hundred years old. It fits beautifully into the composition, sheltering and embracing the family and its newest member.