They took her away

description below

A young woman presumably a prostitute, bare breasted and with a dejected look on her face, is being led up the steps of a building by a beadle or constable, her head bowed in shame. Her infant has been left in the arms of an older woman, stands at the base of the stairs on the right. Another, older child, seated on a lower step in the foreground, looks up at the scene. The building has barred windows.

  • Artist: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, artist.
  • Title: [They took her away] [art original] / T. Rowlandson.
  • Production: [England], [late 18th century?]

Catalog Record

Drawings R79 no. 23 Box D207

Acquired June 2023

Human nature is fond of novelty

description below

An old officer in uniform with a wrinkled face and carbuncles looks lustfully at a pretty young woman as they walk together on a path, his hand grasping hers.

  • Artist: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, artist.
  • Title: Human nature is fond of novelty – Pliny [art original].
  • Production: [England], [late 18th century?]

Catalog Record

Drawings R79 no. 24 Box D146

Acquired June 2023

Changing horses at Clermont

description below

A single-horse carriage is stopped in front of a rustic inn or roadhouse, with two caricatured Frenchmen (one a postillion wearing enormous boots) engaged in changing out the horse. An occupant of the carriage hands money out the window to a peasant woman holding an infant and accompanied by a young boy; two other shabbily dressed figures are nearby next to a tree, one of them playing a makeshift drum. In the doorway of the building stands a young woman, and to the left a man under an archway stands with arms crossed; both watch the scene unfold. In the background a postilion rides away on horseback, whip extended into the air.

  • Artist: Byron, Frederick George, 1764-1792, artist.
  • Title: [Changing horses at Clermont] [art original] / F.G. Byron.
  • Production: [France], [1790]

Catalog Record

Drawer Drawings B995 no. 1

Acquired June 2023

Volunteer infantry 1798

description below

Full-length portrait of a soldier, in profile to the left, a rifle with bayonet resting against his left shoulder.

 

  • Creator: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, artist.
  • Title: Volunteer infantry 1798 [art original] : original sketch by Thos. Rowlandson.
  • Production:[England], [1798]

Catalog Record

Drawings R79 no. 20 Box D207

Acquired November 2022

View of Piazza della Signoria in Florence

description below

A small audience sitting on benches on a tribune next to the equestrian statue of Cosimo I de’ Medici in Piazza della Signoria, watching a military parade of the guards of the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorena (1765-1790), son of the Empress Maria Theresa of Habsburg and brother of Joseph II. The soldiers, forming an L-shaped cordon and led by four battalion officers, are recognizable by their tricorns and the bayonets. At the center of the square, under the grand building of Palazzo Vecchio, stands a troop of drummers. Figures in the the foreground include a group of cavalrymen bearing a banner and followed by a cart on the right; a lady and gentleman waiting for a landau carriage at center; and a figure, maybe a soldier on look-out, watching the scene in Palazzo Uguccioni’s shadow on the left.

 

  • Creator: Patch, Thomas, 1725-1782, artist.
  • Title: [View of Piazza della Signoria in Florence with the Grand Duke’s military guard] [art original].
  • Production: [Florence], [not after 1782]

Catalog Record

Drawings P294 no. 1 Box D205

Acquired September 2022

Designs for Georgian playing cards

description below

Three playing cards, or transformation cards, drawn in pen and ink by an unidentified artist, showing caricatured figures using the shape of the pip, only hearts or diamonds (red watercolor) in this incomplete set. One of the cards (two hearts) features two gentlemen meeting. The other two cards (three of diamonds) feature a lady with a fan and two gentleman in one card; the other incomplete, has a lady with a fan and only one gentleman.

 

  • Title: [Designs for Georgian playing cards] [art original].
  • Production: [England], [between 1800 and 1820?]

Catalog Record

Drawings Un58 no. 96

Acquired August 2022

The one-eyed husband, or, The wife’s dream

description below

A scene in a chamber with the end of canopy bed visible in the background, left. A woman in her undergarments, a candlestick in the foreground positioned suggestively between her legs, reaches out to cover her husband’s one good eye as he walks through the front door; behind her, her lover escapes undetected with his clothes over his arm. Outside, through the open door, a servant can be seen leading a horse, with a barn across the yard. To the right of the door, a chamber pot sits on a ladder-back chair with a hat and a fiddle hanging off pegs on the wall above.

 

  • Creator: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, artist.
  • Title: [The one-eyed husband, or, The wife’s dream] [art original] / T. Rowlandson.
  • Production: [England], [late 18th century?]

Catalog Record

Drawings R79 no. 21 Box D207

Acquired November 2022

Designs for transformation playing cards

description below
description below

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four drawings, each depicting a different character with their face in the form of a heart: a man drinking; a man with a pipe; a violinist; and an elegant lady.
Eleven drawings, each depicting a different character with their face in the form of a heart: a man playing a flute; a dour-looking cleryman; a coachman; a vendor wearing a turban; a man in a tricorne hat; an obese man in an armchair with medicine on a side table; a man smoking a pipe. Also two cards wtih older woman clutching a blanket around her shoulders; a pretty young women with a highly decorated hat with feathers and her hands in a muff; and, a female ballad sheet vendor.

 

  • Artist: Dubuisson, Elizabeth, artist.
  • Title: [Designs for transformation playing cards] [art original].
  • Production: [England], [approximately 1830]

Catalog Record

Drawings D821 no. 1

Acquired December 2022

High life below stairs

description below

“Interior of a kitchen showing servants at leisure: a stout woman dances with a black man in the centre accompanied by a man with a wooden leg who sits playing a violin on the left; watched by others on the right, a young woman standing on a chair and supported by a young man, while a seated man wearing a tricorn smiles and points at her and an elderly woman stands with her arms folded under her apron, a dog at her heels; two posters pasted on the wall behind, shelves, bellows and other kitchen implements in the background.”–British Museum online catalogue, description of a print of the same design.

 

  • Artist: Grose, Francis, 1731?-1791, artist.
  • Title: [High life below stairs] [art original].
  • Production: [England], [not after 1767]

Catalog Record

Drawings G877 no. 1 Box D205

Acquired October 2022

View of the Twickenham bank of the Thames

description below

A view from Richmond of the Twickenham bank of the Thames, showing (left to right) Pope’s villa, Lady Ferrers’ summer house, Cross Deep, and Dr. Batty’s house (later Poulett Lodge).

  • Creator: Heckel, Augustin, approximately 1690-1770, artist.
  • Title: [View of the Twickenham bank of the Thames] [art original].
  • Production: [England], [ca. 1750]

Catalog Record

Drawings H448 no.1

Acquired February 2022