Les dames Anglaises après-diné

description below

“A lady, stout and plain, her knees awkwardly apart, sits behind a small round tea-table filling a cup from a large urn. Seven other ladies sit on her right and left, in a semicircle, on upright chairs, in silent boredom. A child sits by its ugly middle-aged mother on the extreme right. A black servant in livery hands a tray on which are cups, cream-jug, and small (?) rolls. The room is bare except for table, chairs, and a narrow curtained window.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: Les dames Anglaises après-diné [graphic].
  • Publication: A Paris : Chez Martinet, Libraire, Rue de Coq St. Honoré, [1814]

Catalog Record

814.00.00.43

Acquired April 2024

Amusements des Anglais à Paris

description below

“A grossly obese John Bull and his lean and ugly wife, both wearing hats, sit on upright chairs, gormandizing. The man holds a whole chicken to his mouth, taking a huge bite. The woman (left) faces him, biting a large melon which she holds with both hands to an enormous mouth. He is morosely savage, she is melancholy; both are gap-toothed. On the ground (right) by the man’s chair are collected a ham or gigot, a large irregular (?) galantine, a raised pie: ‘pâté de périgueux’, a huge jar of ‘vin de lafitte’ round which four bottles are grouped: ‘frontignac’, ‘Clos de Vouge[ot]’, and ‘. . . seac’. Beside the woman are a basket and tray filled with grapes, peaches, and pears. Through a wide doorway (left) the street is seen with a seated fruit-seller who serves three grotesquely hideous Englishwomen. Two are lank and emaciated, one tries to stuff a big peach into an immense mouth, holding an armful of grapes and peaches; the other gnaws at a bunch of grapes held in both hands. The third, also with bulging cheeks, bites a peach. The fruit-seller’s tray is empty; she holds out her last peach. All the women wear small absurd hats or caps, tight long-waisted bodices (coloured) with long white skirts (cf. No. 12359).”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Title: Amusements des Anglais à Paris [graphic].
  • Publication: A Paris : Chez Martinet, Libraire, Rue de Coq St. Honoré, [between 1814 and 1815]

Catalog Record

814.11.00.01

Acquired April 2024

Maria Lady Broughton

description below

“Half-length, directed towards and looking to the left, right arm resting on a slab to the right, chin leaning on her hand; published state.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Finlayson, John, 1730-1776, printmaker, publisher.
  • Title: Maria Lady Broughton [graphic] / F. Cotes pinxt. ; J. Finlayson sculpt.
  • Edition: [State 2].
  • Publication: [London] : Published May 29th, 1772, & sold by J. Finlayson, Orange Street, Leicester Fields, [29 May 1772]

Catalog Record

Portraits B875 no. 1++

Acquired February 2024

Human nature is fond of novelty

description below

An old officer in uniform with a wrinkled face and carbuncles looks lustfully at a pretty young woman as they walk together on a path, his hand grasping hers.

  • Artist: Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827, artist.
  • Title: Human nature is fond of novelty – Pliny [art original].
  • Production: [England], [late 18th century?]

Catalog Record

Drawings R79 no. 24 Box D146

Acquired June 2023

The consequence of invasion, or, The hero’s reward

description below

“A very fat and jovial volunteer, dressed as a light horseman, holds ln his left hand a pole on which is the head of Napoleon in profile to the right. and wearing a huge cocked hat decorated with plumes, tricolour cockade, gold lace, and tassels. The hand that holds the pole holds also, by the hair, a bunch of bleeding heads which form a grisly garland round it. In his right hand is his sabre. He is surrounded by women; two embrace him, others hasten up; he swaggers with raised left leg, saying, “There you rouges, there! there’s the Boney Part – twenty more killed them!! twenty more killed them too!! I have destroyed half the Army with this same Toledo.” The women say, respectively: “Bless the Warrior that saved our Virgin charms”; “take care I’ll smother him with Kisses”; “Oh! what frightful Heads how ravishing they look, – they would have used us ill I am sure”; “ha ha, thats, that great man little Boney, how glum he looks.” An elderly spinster exclaims: “ah bless him he has saved us from Death and Vileation.” A handsome woman turns to a tall young man in civilian dress on the extreme left, saying, “There you Poltroon look how that noble Hero’s Caressed!” He turns away, saying, “Ods Niggins I wish I had been a Soldier too then the Girls would have run after me – but I never could bear the smell of Gun powder”.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
  • Title: The consequence of invasion, or, The hero’s reward [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. August 1st, 1803, by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly, [1 August 1803]

Catalog Record

803.08.01.01+

Acquired April 2023

The lovely Sacarissa dressing for the Pantheon

description below

“A stout, ugly, and elderly woman holds in her left hand a barber’s block, with a carved head in profile, on which is an elaborate pyramidal wig with ringlets. This she is covering with powder or flour from a dredger. Her hair is short and scanty; on her head is a very large black patch, two smaller ones are on her temple. She is dressed in undergarments, showing stays, and frilled petticoat over which is worn a pocket. Her dress, the bodice of which is almost cylindrical from its stiffening whalebone, is on a stool behind her. Her back is turned to the casement window (right) through which look two grinning old women, wearing frilled muslin caps. Over the window, and over the wall on its left, is a heavily festooned curtain. Sacarissa stands facing a low rectangular table (left), on which are a bottle and wine-glass, a candle (?) in a triangular shade, which is falling over, having apparently been knocked by the wig, patches, a comb, a paper, &c. Behind on the wall, in deep shadow, is a picture of a dome inscribed “The Pantheon”.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Dawe, Philip, printmaker.
  • Title: The lovely Sacarissa dressing for the Pantheon [graphic].
  • Publication: [London] : [publisher not identified], publish’d Feby. 24, 1772.

Catalog Record

772.02.24.02+

Acquired April 2023

Does the harp of Rosa slumber

description below

An old woman in patched-up clothes with her harp huddles in a doorway. The satire contrasts the life of a street singer with the sweet lyrics of the popular ballad by Thomas Moore.

  • Printmaker: Heath, William, 1795-1840, printmaker.
  • Title: Does the harp of Rosa slumber [graphic] / [man with an umbrella] Esqr.
  • Publication: [London] : Pub. by T. McLean, 26 Haymarket, London, [approximately 1829]

Catalog Record

829.00.00.117+

Acquired April 2023

Lucy Waters

description below

Half-length portrait of Lucy Walter, turned slightly left and looking at the viewer; wearing a pearl necklace, pearl earings, and a blue gown adorned with strings of pearls.

 

  • Artist: Harding, G. P. (George Perfect), 1780-1853, artist.
  • Title: Lucy Waters [art original] / G.P.H. delt.
  • Production: [England], [approximately 1800]

Catalog Record

Drawings H263 no. 7 Box D125

Acquired October 2022

The ladies complete letter-writer

printed title page

  • Title: The ladies complete letter-writer : teaching the art of inditing letters … Being a collection of letters, written by ladies … the whole forming a polite and improving manual …
  • Edition: The second edition, with corrections and additions.
  • Publication: London : Printed for the editor, and sold by T. Lownds in Fleet-Street, [1765]

Catalog Record

19 765L

Acquired July 2021