Jacques-Laurent Agasse, The Chalon Family in London, ca. 1800, oil on academy board, Paul Mellon Fund. The expatriate Swiss painter of animals Jacques-Laurent Agasse moved permanently to England in 1800. On his arrival in London, Agasse lodged with the family of Jean Chalon, a Huguenot watchmaker who left Geneva in 1794, during troubles arising the French Revolution, and settled in England with his wife, two sons, and a daughter. At first, Chalon was appointed professor of French at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. The family later moved to London and settled at 8 Church Lane, Kensington, where this group portrait was painted. The Chalons were related by marriage to the artists James and William Ward and their brother-in-law George Morland. The sons, Alfred-Edouard and John James Chalon (who are not shown here), became artists and, much later, Royal Academicians. They were lifelong friends of Agasse. According to an old inscription, the subjects of this informal group are an uncle (standing on the right, conversing with a neighbor) and an aunt, who may be the figure peeling potatoes.