Portrait of the children of Benjamin Goldsmid, with a pony and a dog in a landscape

Benjamin Goldsmid, son of the Jewish Dutch émigré Aaron, a merchant who moved to London from Amsterdam in 1763, was - along with his brother Abraham - the first specialist in bill broking in the City of London. Having declined to acquire a licence as one of the permitted dozen Jewish brokers, preferring to win their reputation in the discounting of bills, the brothers flourished swiftly, making many influential friends including Abraham Newland, chief cashier of the Bank of England. They undertook favours for members of government, and raised money in the Netherlands for the profligate Prince of Wales, later George IV. Indeed, their close familiarity with the sons of George III did much to break down social prejudice against Jews in England and to pave the way for emancipation.

One foundation of the Goldsmids’ success was their intimate knowledge of continental trade and their network of Jewish correspondents, thanks to which they had an unrivalled knowledge of the creditworthiness of the numerous merchant houses in the trade. Much like the Rothschilds and the Medici before them, the Goldsmids utilised their international status with agents and correspondents in Hamburg, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Vienna and other European cities. The protracted period of war with revolutionary France and subsequently Napoleon further strengthened the brothers' position, as the unprecedented government borrowing allowed them to move into loan contracting in 1795 by joining a syndicate of City bankers that raised £18,000,000 to fund the war. Later, the Goldsmids moved into syndicates with Sir Francis Baring, one of Britain's most influential merchant bankers.

The Goldsmids had two very personal reasons for wishing to finance the British cause during the Napoleonic Wars. The first was their close friendship with Lord Nelson. In his diary, Lionel Goldsmid, Benjamin’s youngest son, seen here on the pony, later recalled, ‘I remember Lord Nelson slept at our house the night before he left England on his last fatal mission - he was walking the last morning arm in arm with my mother up and down the drawing-room … and my youngest sister and myself on the side of his armless body’ (quoted P. Edmen, ‘The Brothers Goldsmid and the Financing of the Napoleonic Wars’, Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England), 1935, XIV, p. 236). The second was their son Albert, standing behind the large dog in the present painting, who entered the army in 1811 as cornet in the 12th Light Dragoons, and the following year went on active duty in Spain, where he continued to serve until the close of the war, being present at Waterloo.

In addition to their business acumen, the Goldsmids made astute matrimonial alliances, which strengthened the family's standing within the Jewish and Gentile communities. Benjamin married Jessie, the daughter of Israel Levien Salomons, a wealthy East India merchant, who brought a dowry of £100,000. Together they had seven children who survived infancy, all seen here. From left to right across the canvas are: Henry, their second son, in a green jacket supporting their youngest son Lionel seated on the pony beside his sister Hetty. In the dashing red jacket at the centre of the composition is the eldest child, John, aged eleven at the time this portrait was executed. Holding John's hand is Mary Ann, and to the right behind the large dog stand Albert and James. This group portrait would have been commissioned to hang in the new Goldsmid family home Elm Grove, Roehampton, Surrey, as indicated by the inscription on the dog’s collar. Purchased in 1798, the large estate comprised 150 acres, which included a small farm that had the honour of growing the corn used by the Chief Rabbi of his private synagogue to make his Passover bread.

Tragically, Benjamin suffered from ill-health and periods of dark depression, which led him to take his own life April 1808. However, his children and grandchildren went on to have wide and varied lives. John did not share his father's head for finance, being more interested in literature; he settled in Edinburgh, where he produced finely printed editions of rare tracts, with a particular focus on romances and early historical works, and Benjamin’s grandson, by his son Lionel was the well-known orientalist and traveller, Sir Frederic John Goldsmid, K.C.S.I.