National Galleries of Scotland

Studio photography in the nineteenth century was a serious business, and most of their photographs show solemn individuals. This picture, by contrast, has a much more relaxed air about it. The sitters are the photographer John Moffat's own children. While Nelly who stands at the back, is serious enough to be taken for her own mother. Frank on the right, who later became a photographer himself, is smiling knowledgeably at his father. The six year old on the left, Sophia, looks pretty bored. As an adult she took an interest in Egyptology and Occultism and even picked up smoking.