Combining group portraiture and landscape, Fishing Party features a leisurely group enjoying the day and one another.  The cool blues, warm earth tones, and fluid textures of this peaceful retreat are echoed in the stylish country-wear of the sitters. The bourgeois men and women are at the height of British fashion and exhibit the trend towards less formality in both British and French fashion designs of the eighteenth century. 

The young gentlemen sport unadorned, yet nonetheless elegant three-piece suits composed of waistcoat (vest), coat, breeches (short pants), stockings, and high-heeled shoes.The ladies don flowing, single-layer gowns of white muslin with wide, uncorsetted waistlines and extravagantly plumed straw hats.

Ann Millett