Harriet Lancashire White (Mrs. Edward Laurence White) and Her Children, Sarah and Laurence

Lydia Field Emmet (1866-1952) was an American portrait painter known for her portraits of women and children in the elegant manner that distinguishes the best American portraiture of the early 20th century. The portrait of Harriet Lancashire White and her children from 1922 depicts a mother and two children in the elegant, intimate manner that makes Emmet's portraits among the most accomplished of American portrait painting between the wars. The 1922 date places this in Emmet's most productive period, when she was producing portraits of American society families with the elegance and intimacy that distinguish her best work.

Emmet's portrait of Harriet Lancashire White and her children is important in the history of American portrait painting because it demonstrates the elegant, intimate manner that distinguishes the best American portraiture between the wars. The mother-and-children subject allows Emmet to exercise her talent for combining elegance with intimacy—official portraiture with domestic warmth—creating a type of portrait that is simultaneously formal and personal.

Harriet Lancashire White and her children is Emmet's elegant American portraiture at its most intimate: a mother and two children rendered with the combination of elegance and domestic warmth that distinguishes her best work. The 1922 portrait shows American society portraiture between the wars at its most accomplished.