Painted in 1922, Harriet Lancashire White and Her Children is a typical example of Lydia Field Emmet’s formal, commissioned society portraiture. The painting represents Harriet W. Lancashire White, the wife of a New York investment banker, and her two children, Sarah Lancashire White and E. Laurence White Jr. The viewer seems to have intruded upon a quiet family gathering during which the mother was entertaining her children with the illustrated book that rests on her lap. Both the mother and daughter look directly at the spectator, while the boy gazes off to the left as if something has momentarily captured his attention. Sarah White grew up to be “well known in New England riding and hunt circles,” and E. Laurence White Jr. graduated from Harvard College in 1941 and became a partner in a New York advertising firm.

Active in New York and Massachusetts, Lydia Field Emmet was one of the leading society portraitists of her generation. Particularly admired for her portraits of women and children, at the height of her career she was considered one of the most talented American woman artists, second only to Cecilia Beaux. Her fluid, painterly style was influenced by John Singer Sargent and William Merritt Chase. The latter had been one of her teachers at the Art Students League in New York, and she taught at his Shinnecock Summer School of Art on Long Island.