“Young woman dressed in her ballgown half-reclines on a settee in her bedroom while her elderly maid yawns with tiredness.”–British Museum online catalogue.
829.00.00.118+
Acquired May 2023
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.
Drawings R79 no. 21 Box D207
Acquired November 2022
An elderly lady with towering coiffure topped with feathers and ribbons holds tightly to the post of a canopy bed, as her equally old and ugly maid, bracing a foot on the lady’s cork rump, tightens her stays
777.03.05.01.1
Acquired July 2021
Print shows an interior view of a room; a duke has arrived home drunk at 5 a.m. (as shown on the longcase clock beside the door) accompanied by two attendants and watchman only to find his bedchamber occupied by another man. Through the open curtains around the bed can be seen a bare-breasted duchess. On the floor near the bed is an open book, “Memoirs of a woman of pleasure” (a reference to John Cleland’s Fanny Hill …) beside the chamber pot. As the duke with sword drawn, staggers forward, his rival climbs through a window in the background, leaving his clothes behind on a chair. A monkey dashes onto the table near the window on the heels of the husband’s rival but pulls down the tablecloth causing the items on the table to be strewn across the floor in the foreground; a book opened to pages “Chastity in the nobility a farce. Dedicated to their Graces the Duke & Dutchess xxx”, breaking a broken mirror, and sending the bottles and jars onto the floor. The bottles have labels “Viper drops” and “Surfeit water” and the jar is labeled “Lip salve”.
769.05.01.01+
Acquired February 2022
A German copy of Hogarth’s “The Discovery” (1743?): a scene in a bedoom where four gentlemen stand beside a curtained bed in which a black woman reclines; she reaches out to touch the chin of one of the men who has evidently just pulled back the curtain. The scene is thought to record a practical joke carried out on the lothario John Highmore by his friends: having arranged an assignation with an attractive young woman, they replaced her with a black prostitute. When he discovered the swap, on climbing into bed, they appeared from hiding. See Paulson.
Hogarth 830.00.00.01 Box 140
Acquired January 2021
“A young dandy lounging on a sofa with a young woman, holding up a glass, while she lays one hand on his knee, holding a glass herself, her elbow on a round table beside a bottle of Madeira and a dish of peaches; a bed seen through the open door in the background to right.”–British Museum online catalogue.
795.06.18.01+
Acquired January 2021
“Husband and wife dressing in a bedroom, the tent-shaped bed-curtains forming a background. The woman is thin and has a mole on her face, the man broad, but their deficiencies are similar. She stands (left), about to raise her shift and adjust false posteriors. A false bust, false teeth, and wig, simulating natural curls, are on the table behind her, on which are also the man’s wig and an eye in a tumbler of water. Both are bald. He sits (right) in shirt and breeches, about to put on a pair of stockings with false calves of fleece. Both register sour dissatisfaction with themselves and each other.”–British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state.
820.01.20.02+
Acquired June 2019
A young woman sits despairingly on the edge of a bed, with the end of a garter round her neck; the other end dangles from the bed-tester. She watches a servant holding a foppish, elderly naval officer by the collar as he flourishes a cudgel. At his feet lie a set of bellows. On the wall is a framed picture of Venus and Adonis with Cupid.
Drawings C889 no. 7 Box D115
Acquired March 2019