La belle assemblêe [graphic].

"Five elderly women of fashion attend an altar of Love in a temple whose walls are wreathed with roses. The fat Mrs. Hobart, in profile to the right, pours incense on the flames of the altar; in her right hand is an open book, 'Ninon'. Behind her (left) Lady Archer, with the nose of a bird of prey, leads a lamb garlanded with roses; she guides the animal with a riding-whip. Miss Jefferies walks beside Lady Archer holding a basket of flowers. On the extreme left Lady Mount-Edgcumb, aged and bent, holds a dove in each hand. On the right of the altar Lady Cecilia Johnstone plays a lyre. The altar is decorated with rams' heads, a heart, arrows, and roses. A sculptured group of the three Graces stands in an alcove in the wall above the altar. In the background (left) is a mountain peak, Parnassus, on which sits a tiny figure of Apollo, playing a fiddle, the sun irradiating his head."--British Museum online catalogue