1742.
1. Martin Folks, Esq. half length. W. Hogarth pinxit & sculpsit. An engraving. To some impressions of this print, which are not proofs, the name of Hogarth is wanting.
2. The same, half length mezzotinto. W. Hogarth pinx. 1741; J. Faber fecit. 1742. The original of both is now in the meeting-room of the Royal Society, in Somerset Place.
3. Charmers of the Age.[1] "A sketch. No name." It was intended to ridicule Mons. Desnoyer[2] and Signora Barberini, the two best dancers that ever appeared in London. This plate exhibits the internal prospect of a theatre. The openings between the side scenes are crowded with applauding spectators. The two performers are capering very high. A sun over head (I suppose the emblem of public favour) is darting down its rays upon them. The representatives of Tragedy and Comedy are candle-holders on the occasion. Underneath is the following inscription: "The prick'd lines show the rising height." There are also a few letters of direction, so situated as to convey no very decent innuendo. The whole is but a hasty outline, executed, however, with spirit, and bitten uncommonly deep by the aqua fortis. I ascribe it to Hogarth without hesitation. Of this print there is a copy by Livesay.
All the three pieces of our artist that satirize the stage, &c. are peculiarly scarce. We may suppose them, therefore, to have been suppressed by the influence of the managers for the time being, who were not, like our present ones, become callous through the incessant attacks of diurnal criticks in the news-papers.
[1] Hogarth designed to have published this print, with some explanation at the bottom of it in 1741-2.—See the inscription almost effaced, a circumstance to which the copier did not attend.
[2] I learn from The Grub-street Journal for October 17, 1734, that Monsieur Desnoyer was just arrived from Poland, together with Mademoiselle Roland from Paris (this lady is still alive). Again, from the same paper, August 19, 1756, that "Monsieur Desnoyer, the famous dancer at Drury-lane, is gone to Paris, by order of Mr. Fleetwood, to engage Mademoiselle Sallee for the ensuing winter." In some future expedition, we may suppose, he prevailed on Signora Barberini to come over for the same purpose.
4. Taste in High Life. A beau, a fashionable old lady, a young lady, a black boy, and a monkey. Painted by Mr. Hogarth. It was sold by Mr. Jarvis, in Bedford-street, Covent-Garden. Published May 24th, [no year]. The original picture is in the possession of Mr. Birch, surgeon, Essex-street, in The Strand.
It displays (as we learn from an inscription on the pedestal under a Venus dressed in a hoop-petticoat) the reigning modes of the year 1742. It was painted for the opulent Miss Edwards, who paid our artist sixty guineas for it. Her reason for choosing such a subject was rather whimsical. By her own singularities having incurred some ridicule, she was desirous, by the assistance of Hogarth, to recriminate on the publick. As he designed after her ideas, he had little kindness for his performance, and never would permit a print to be taken from it. The present one was from a drawing made by connivance of her servants. The original was purchased by the father of its present owner, at her sale at Kensington.
The figure of the beau holding the china-saucer is said to have been that of Lord Portmore, dressed as he first appeared at court after his return from France. The young female was designed for a celebrated courtezan, who was the Kitty Fisher of her time. Her familiarity with the black boy alludes to a similar weakness in a noble duchess, who educated two brats of the same colour. One of them afterwards robbed her, and the other was guilty of some offence equally unpardonable. The pictures with which the room is adorned, contain many strokes of temporary satire. See the Venus with stays, a hoop, and high-heel'd shoes; Cupid burning all these parts of dress, together with a modish wig, &c.; a second Cupid paring down a plump lady to the fashionable standard; and [in a framed picture classed with a number of insects] the figure of Desnoyer the dancing-master in a grand ballet. The ridicule on the folly of collecting old china, &c. &c. are alike circumstances happily introduced, and explanatory of the fashions then in vogue. The colouring is better than that in most of Hogarth's pictures. The plate is now the property of Mr. Sayer.