A representation of contrasting feelings and emotions in two separate oval frames on one plate. In the left one, a dejected-looking middle-aged gentleman in fine clothes, bag wig, and a bow under his chin, is gazing ahead with unseeing eyes. His chin rests on the handle of a gold-headed cane that he is holding up with both hands. His forehead is creased with worry and his mouth downturned. In the frame on the right, a stout middle-aged, genial man in simpler clothes of the same period, and in what appears to be a bob-wig parted in the middle, laughs joyously pointing to the disconsolate looking gentleman on the left
Description:
Title from item., Tentatively attributed to Isaac Basire in an unverified card catalog record., Sheet trimmed to plate mark on bottom and sides., Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires., Temporary local subject terms: Contrasts -- Male dress, ca. 1737., Watermark: countermark I V., and Ms. annotations in Italian and Latin written in contemporary hand above image on recto.
