“The Prince of Orange (left), dressed like a Dutchman in (English) caricature, kneels with arms extended imploringly at the feet of Princess Charlotte (a good portrait). He wears Apollo‘s wreath, decorated with small oranges, before him is his clumsy flower-pot hat, containing a paper: ‘Rules for the game of ye Dutch Pins’ (ninepins); beside this is a Jews’ harp, a degraded form of Apollo‘s lyre. His breeches are enormously bulky, and a tobacco-pipe projects from a pocket. He sings: “Lovely Maid, assuage my Anguish! At your feet your true love sighs; Do not let your Dutchman languish, If you frown, alas he dies!” She answers, pointing to his breeches: “From what I feel, and what I see, There’s nought about you that bewitches; Unless indeed a charm may be In a Dutchman’s great big breeches!!!” She stands beside a table (right) at which she has been sitting. On this are her painting materials, pencil, brushes, cakes of water-colour, porcelain palette, and jar of water, with an open box. Her painting is on a sloping board: a fat Dutchman trudges off, a bundle at his back, in the direction of a sign-post pointing ‘To Holland’; he grasps his head despairingly. Behind the Prince a French window with draped curtains gives on to a small balcony. By the window are flowering plants in a jardinière; a sofa stands against the wall; a patterned carpet completes the design.”–British Museum online catalogue.
- Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
- Title: The Dutch Apollo! [graphic].
- Publication: London : Pubd. June 29, 1814, by Wm. Holland, 11 Cockspur St., [29 June 1814]
814.06.29.01+
Acquired June 2024
“Two elderly men, in old-fashioned dress, play chess, seated at a small table, lit by two guttering candles. One moves, the other watches with intense concern. Each has a deeply interested spectator leaning on the back of his chair. All four are caricatured. A small dog lies on the ground. A large fire burns in the grate (right). Over the chimney-piece is the lower part of a whole length portrait. On the wall behind the players are three pictures: one of a man playing ninepins outside a rustic inn, with a donkey looking over a paling, is flanked by a picture of a horse and by a landscape.”–British Museum online catalogue.