Three men in a triptych

As children grow into adults in the blink of an eye and with three sons in their twenties, Clive Aslet decided to capture this moment of their youth in a group portrait

- Clive Aslet

LOCKDOWN, in our family, was not entirely wasted. Spending more time in the house than we might have wished, we decided to commission a couple of paintings. Now, one of them hangs in our drawing room, occupying more or less the whole of one wall. It is a portrait of our three boys—or, rather, three portraits, as it takes triptych form. ‘Is this what it was like sitting for Rubens?’ asked one of the subjects. The answer is probably ‘yes’.

William, Johnny and Charlie are now in their twenties. That was the point of the exercise: they will never be that age again and we wanted to record this transitory moment of their lives. There were questions to ask, however, before the project could begin. The most obvious was the choice of artist and we settled upon Philip and Khloe Cath, a husband-and-wife team who met at art school and now work together. We felt their bravura manner would suit a trio of young men.