Two gentlemen wearing academic caps stand looking at tomb effigy in a side chapel of a church. The one man who has a large belly and is gesturing toward the tomb, bears some resemblance to Samuel Johnson. To the right, man confronts a woman who seems prepared to deliver a backhanded slap with her fan.
A second drawing on the back of the sheet is of a street scene, with a carriage, horse-drawn omnibus, various couples promenading in the street with one man begging with hat in hand.
- Artist: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, artist.
- Title: [Academics viewing a tomb inside a church] [art original] ; [Street scene].
- Production: [England], [approximately 1820]
Drawings R79 no. 25 Box D146
Acquired May 2024
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 1 of A harlot’s progress: A scene outside the Bell Inn: a country girl, Moll Hackabout, having just arrived on the York Wagon (seen on the right), meets an extravagantly dressed bawd (Mother Needham); a clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter, but a lecherous old gentleman (Colonel Charteris) eyes the girl with anticipation. In the lower left the girl’s initials “H.M.” (M[ary?] Hackabout, initials reversed on this copy) are on her portmanteau, next to which is a basket with a goose with a note around its neck, “For my Loving Cosen in Tems Stret in London”, presumably the person who has failed to meet her. In the background a woman hangs out her laundry on a balcony. A clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter as his horse feeds on hay next to the wagon. In the back of the wagon, four other country girls sit holding onto a rail.
