A scene from Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ showing Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico (c. 1220-1289), an Italian nobleman, politician and naval commander and his sons and grandchildren imprisoned in a dungeon. After Reynolds.
Drawings R79 no. 18 Box D205
Acquired August 2020
A scene in a tavern with a pair of inebriated men sitting on a bench in front of fireplace, smoking pipes and drinking from tankards, a dog at their feet. Another man from the next booth leans over the wall to engage them in conversation which they seem not to enjoy. In the next booth (right) a group of four men play cards while a fifth looks on.
Drawings R79 no.16 Box 2
Acquired August 2020
A watercolor sketch of two rotund monks in front of a entrance to monastery in a lane within gate and wall surround. One attends closely to a young lady with two baskets on her arms; the other reads, lounging on a bench with his one foot raised.
Drawings R79 no. 15 Box D145
Acquired July 2020
An unfinished sketch for the engraving which appeared in the November 1845 issue of “George Cruikshank’s Table-book,” illustrating a brief article on railroad speculation by the periodical’s editor, Gilbert Abbott a Beckett. John Bull is beset by lilliputian tormentors who are removing all his cash, clothing, and possessions, beneath clouds of steam and a clanging bell.
Drawings C889 no. 8 Box D115
Acquired July 2020
A set of playing cards drawn by an unidentified artist, showing caricatured figures; each vignette incorporates the formation of hearts or diamonds into the scene. Some of the cards are numbered or annotated on the backs while others show drafts of other sketches. The set contains only the red suits and with cards numbered from one to ten in each, although some numbers are missing and there are multiples of other numbers. Illustrations are also duplicated while others appear not to have been finished. There are no cards with clubs and spades. A number of the cards center on Shakespearean themes, social history and street scenes (such as courtroom drama, musicians performing, a man in the stocks and, in a few, card playing itself). Some of the scenes depicted on these cards show the more ribald, drawing from Macbeth’s Weird Sisters, Twelfth Night, King John, and The Merry Wives of Windsor; several are annotated on the reverse with lines from the plays. Falstaff is featured on several cards. Many of the cards reflect the mores of the period and the contrast between ruling passions and rules of conduct. In one, two men cast judgment upon a pregnant woman. It is annotated on the reverse with a dialogue between a Constable and a Judge. In “Village School” a schoolteacher manages to simultaneously hold a book and pinch a child’s ear (nine of hearts). Other subjects include a game of chess (five of diamonds); drinking and smoking in a pub (seven of diamonds); and “Bunbury’s Country Club” in which the artist has kept elements from the print (published circa 1788) for the six of diamonds. On one card the artist depicts a game of whist (annotated on the reverse “Can you one?”) for the ten of diamonds.
Drawings Un58 G
Acquired February 2020
A copy of the caricature of the British Statesman and High Lord Chancellor Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868), that appeared in the center of an print that was published on 1 October 1834 in Every body’s album & caricature magazine, no. 19. He is depicted as a very thin traveller wearing a Scottish tam over his wig and using a broom as a walking stick; his shoe is worn through. He carries a wooden post labelled “Scratching post”, a box stamped “Containing the freedoms of all the Scotch towns” and a bag with the words “Broken victuals the leavings of the Edinburgh blow out”. Around his waist is another bag, “Oat meal”. Above the image framed in lines in gold ink: “I flatter myself I’ve made a tolerable good job by my “Starring it” with Old Grey in the North! Sold all my numbers of the Penny Magazine, and well puff’d it through every town I went. Made little less than one hundred speeches about, I forget now, Received some score of Burgesses, Freedoms, and Invitations to as many dinners, where I blew my own trumpet & obtained plenty of orders from our Usefull Knowledge Society! Now, woe to the unstamn’d when I get home! I must have a good scrub at my skin presently; I reckon I have got a taste of the fiddle through my itch for travelling!
Drawings M999 no. 1 Box D205
Acquired December 2019
An album of amateur drawings, with scenes in Kent, East Sussex, Hertfordshire and Surrey. The artist, only identified with the initials ‘S.G.L.’, provides titles and dates for the majority of the drawings. The first group (thirteen in all) dated 1828 are views in Kent, Sussex, and Hertfordshire, including Leeds Castle, Hythe, Sandgate, Rye, Pevensey Castle, Tunbridge Wells, St. Albans, and Hatfield. The second, larger group of drawings are scenes in and round the village of Bletchingley (sometimes Bletchingly) in Surrey, depicting village life.
Folio 64 Su7 828
Acquired December 2019
An album of sketches largely comprised of images drawn by a traveller in central and southern France in the late 1820s and early 1830s. The images, executed in a variety of media and styles, are mostly skillfully drawn landscapes, elevations of buildings, and people in local costume, with captions in French (with some English)
82 827Sk
Acquired October 2019
A caricature on the prevalence of bribery during elections, most probably that of 1826. The successful liberal candidate stands on a platform before a cheering crowd and people waving from the windows of adjoining building. In the ‘Committee Room’ behind him, an official pays a man holding a sign inscribed ‘No bribery or corruption’ with the word ‘and’ between bribery and corruption scored through. On the right is an armchair and behind it stand two large flags; two flowers on the chair match the flower on the lapel of the candidate.
Drawings L265 no. 2 Box D205
Acquired March 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
