Informal group portrait, usually small in scale, showing people, often families, sometimes groups of friends, in domestic interior or garden settings. Sitters are shown interacting with each other or with pets, taking tea, playing games. Contrast with court or grand style portrait. Seems to have evolved early eighteenth century to meet demand from new middle classes, although also gained aristocratic and royal patrons. Probably introduced in Britain by Mercier about 1725, popularised by Hogarth, then Devis and became highly fashionable with Zoffany.