1782.
1. The Staymaker.
2. Debates on Palmistry.
The humour in the first of the two preceding prints is not very strong, and in the second it is scarce intelligible. The Male Staymaker seems to be taking professional liberties with a female in the very room where her husband sits, who is playing with one of his children presented to him by a nurse, perhaps with a view to call off his attention from what is going forward. The hag shews her pretended love for the infant, by kissing its posteriors. A maid-servant holds a looking-glass for the lady, and peeps significantly at the operator from behind it. A boy with a cockade on, and a little sword by his side, appears to observe the familiarities already mentioned, and is strutting up fiercely towards the Staymaker, while a girl is spilling some liquor in his hat.
The figures employed in the study of Palmistry seem to be designed for Physicians and Surgeons of an Hospital, who are debating on the most commodious method of receiving a fee, unattentive to the complaints of a lame female who solicits assistance. A spectre, resembling the Royal Dane, comes out behind, perhaps to intimate that physick and poison will occasionally produce similar effects. A glass case, containing skeletons, is open; a crocodile hangs overhead; and an owl, emblematic of this sapient consistory, is perched on an high stand. I suspect these two to have been discarded sketches—the first of them too barren in its subject to deserve finishing, and the second a repented effort of hasty spleen against the officers of St. Bartholomew's, who might not have treated some recommendation of a patient from our artist with all the respect and attention to which he thought it was entitled. But this is mere supposition.
3. Portrait of Henry Fox Lord Holland.
4. Portrait of James Caulfield Earl of Charlemont.
The above four articles are all etched by S. Haynes, pupil to the late Mr. Mortimer, from original drawings in the possession of Mr. S. Ireland.
The six prints which follow, were published by subscription by Mrs. Hogarth in April 1782; of these No. 5. was engraved by Bartolozzi, and the rest by R. Livesay.
5. The Shrimp Girl, a head, from an original sketch in oil, in the possession of Mrs. Hogarth.
This plate, which is executed in the dotted manner so much at present in fashion, should have been etched or engraved like those excellent performances by Bartolozzi after the drawings of Guercino. Spirit, rather than delicacy, is the characteristic of our artist's Shrimp Girl.
6. 7. Portraits of Gabriel Hunt and Benjamin Read, in aqua tinta, from the original drawings in the possession of the late Mr. Forrest. The drawing of Mr. Hunt was taken in 1733, a period when, from the number of street-robberies, it was usual to go armed. Hunt's couteau is stuck in one of his button-holes.
The figure of Ben Read was taken in 1757. Coming one night to the club after having taken a long journey, he fell asleep there. Hogarth had got on his roquelaure, and was about to leave the room; but, struck with the drollery of his friend's appearance, he exclaimed, "Heavens! what a character!" and, calling for pen and ink, took the drawing immediately, without sitting down.
To be recorded only as votaries of the bottle and pipe, is no very flattering mark of distinction to these members of our artist's club. There is scarce a meaner avenue to the Temple of Fame.
8. Three plates, from the original sketches of Hogarth, designed for the epitaph and monument of George Taylor. The drawings are the property of Mr. Morrison.
George Taylor was a famous boxer, who died February 21, 1750. A writer already quoted speaks of him in these terms: "George Taylor, known by the name of George the Barber, sprang up surprisingly. He has beat all the chief boxers but Broughton. He, I think, injudiciously fought him one of the first, and was obliged very soon to give out. Doubtless it was a wrong step in him to commence a boxer by fighting the standing champion: for George was not then twenty, and Broughton was in the zenith of his age and art. Since that he has greatly distinguished himself with others; but has never engaged Broughton more. He is a strong able boxer, who, with a skill extraordinary, aided by his knowledge of the small and back swords, and a remarkable judgement in the cross-buttock fall, may contest with any. But, please or displease, I am resolved to be ingenuous in my characters. Therefore I am of opinion, that he is not overstocked with that necessary ingredient of a boxer, called a bottom; and am apt to suspect that blows of equal strength with his too much affect him and disconcert his conduct." Godfrey on the Science of Defence, p. 61.
On Taylor's tombstone in Deptford church-yard is the following epitaph:
Farewell ye honours of my brow!
Victorious wreaths farewell!
One trip from Death has laid me low,
By whom such numbers fell.
Yet bravely I'll dispute the prize,
Nor yield, though out of breath:
'Tis but a fall—I yet shall rise,
And conquer—even Death.
The idea, however, is all that can merit praise in these rough outlines by Hogarth. Some graver critics, indeed, may think our artist has treated the most solemn of all events with too great a degree of levity.
9. Nine prints of Hogarth's Tour from drawings by Hogarth, &c. accompanied with nine pages of letter press. The frontispiece of this work (Mr. Somebody) was designed by Hogarth, as emblematical of their journey, viz. that it was a short Tour by land and water, backwards and forwards, without head or tail. The 9th is the tail-piece (Mr. Nobody) of the same whimsical nature with the first; the whole being intended as a burlesque on historical writers recording a series of insignificant events intirely uninteresting to the reader. "Some few copies of the Tour," says Mr. Walpole,[1] "were printed by Mr. Nichols in the preceding year. It was a party of pleasure down the river into Kent, undertaken by Mr. Hogarth, Mr. Scott, and three of their friends, in which they intended to have more humour than they accomplished, as is commonly the case in such meditated attempts. The Tour was described in verse by one of the company, and the drawings executed by the painters, but with little merit, except the views taken by Mr. Scott."
I have transcribed this paragraph lest the readers of the truly valuable work whence it is taken should imagine the Tour printed by J. N. in 1781, was the same with that published by Mr. Livesay in 1782. The former was the production of the ingenious Mr. Gostling of Canterbury; the latter was written by one of the company, and, with the omission of a single glaring indelicacy, and many false spellings, has been faithfully edited by Mr. Livesay.
[1] Vol. IV. 8vo. p. 192.
10. Hogarth's Crest, exhibiting the Line of Beauty. Cyprus and Variety subjoined by way of mottoes; but my readers will anticipate me when I observe that the universe contains no place in which Hogarth had so little interest as in the Cyprian isle, where Venus was attended by the Graces. Hogarth's original sketch, which he delivered to Mr. Catton the coach-painter for the purpose of having it transferred on his carriage, is now in the possession of Mr. Livesay.
11. The card of invitation mentioned in p. [63]. is introduced in the [title-page] of the present publication. It is engraved by J. Cary, a young artist, whose abilities, more particularly in the line of map-engraving, will soon raise him into notice.
12. An Old Man's Head with a band. In the dotted stile. Published by Livesay.