“Dr. James Graham, the famous quack, stands on a small platform or pedestal, addressing an audience of both sexes who sit and stand in front of him. He stands rather to the right of the design looking left, his right hand raised, his left holding a rolled paper as in British Museum Satire no. 6324. He wears a bag-wig and ruffled shirt. Those of the audience whose faces are visible are probably portraits, but only Fox, Wilkes, and (?) Perdita Robinson can be identified. Three persons sit on a raised seat immediately under the lecturer and with their backs towards him: a young man puts his arm round a lady who draws back with a coy expression; the third is Fox who sits gloomily impassive, his head supported on his hand, perhaps annoyed at the way in which Mrs. Robinson looks towards the man standing next her, who stands on the extreme right in profile to the left. He is slim and wears the fashionable riding-dress but is very ugly. Two rows of people sit on forms facing the lecturer. Others stand on the left. Wilkes is in profile to the right, an elderly beau with receding hair, sunken eyes, and broken teeth.”–British Museum online catalogue.
- Printmaker: Boyne, John, approximately 1750-1810, printmaker.
- Title: The docter [sic] himself pouring out his whole soul for 1 s. [graphic] / I.B.
- Publication: London : Published as the act directs Feby. 12, 1783, by R. Rusted, No. 3 Bridge St., Ludgate Hill, [12 February 1783]
Catalog Record
783.02.12.01+
Acquired May 2017
“Portrait of Mary ‘Perdita’ Robinson, half-length in an oval, directed to left but looking forward, with high dressed hair with a cap on top, and both hands in a muff.”–British Museum online catalogue.