Raising the wind [graphic]

"A handsome young military officer, seated in an armchair, drinks wine with two Jewish money-lenders, who sit facing him across a round table. He listens with a reckless smile to one of the Jews; the other peers through spectacles at 'Title Deeds'. The Jews are old, thin, and bearded, but one wears a bag-wig. On the ground by the latter (right) is a paper: 'Money Lent on good Securities. Annuities Jointers [sic] bought and Sold.' By the spendthrift's chair lies a greyhound. The background is a wall closely covered with pictures in ornate frames, which combine to tell the young man's story. Above his head is a 'Prodigal Son' kneeling among the swine; above this a reclining Venus is partly visible, and below, 'Diane', a horse and foal. Gamesters at a 'Hazard Table' hangs above 'Sir Matthew Mite', a miser with money-bags, weighing coin in sacks. Below this is a bust portrait of 'Sir Peter Plumb' in a tie-wig. A bust portrait of a scraggy woman wearing jewels is 'Lady Crane'. Below this is a picture of a fighting-cock, the frame decorated by a baron's coronet. On the right are two pictures, a jockey on a race-horse, 'Sancho', with the winning-post in the background, and a large gabled country house: 'View of the Yorkshire Estate'."--British Museum online catalogue