"Gaetan Vestris (right) giving a dancing lesson to a gigantic goose with a human head and long pigtail queue. They face each other in profile. Vestris stands with his legs together, chest thrown out, his arms curved. "Regardez-moi" was his characteristic admonition. On a stool behind the goose is an open book inscribed "Electrical E. E. L."; on the ground at its feet is another inscribed "The Torpedo. Dedicated to Ld------C------. My Lord, I take the Liberty------ The greatness of whose Parts are known. . ." . This indicates that the goose is Lord Cholmondeley (1749-1827), "The Torpedo, a Poem to the Electrical Eel addressed to Mr John Hunter Surgeon" and "Dedicated to . . . Lord Cholmondeley," 4th ed. 1777, was a coarse and scurrilous poem, three lines of which are, "What tho' Lord Ch--lm--d--ly may conceal A most enormous length of Eel Admir'd for Size and bone:"In the wall which forms the background are two sash-windows and a door (left) round which a grinning youth, probably a servant, is looking. On the wall are half length portraits: three in ovals of elderly ladies in profile, one of a clergyman, full-face, wearing a biretta, his left hand on a book. There is also a picture of Fox, with a fox's head, seated opposite Cholmondeley; they are throwing dice. Fox appears satisfied, the other clenches his fist and exclaims in anger. A devil is climbing on the top of the frame and holds out a claw to grab the head of Fox. On the picture are the words "A Nick by God". Like Fox, see BMSat 5972, Cholmondeley held a faro bank at Brooks's. G.E.C., 'Complete Peerage'."-- British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from text at bottom of image., Printmaker and date of publication from British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., 1 print : etching with aquatint on laid paper ; sheet 26.7 x 36.6 cm., and Mounted on leaf 12 of volume 7 of 12.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
England
Subject (Name):
Vestris, Gaëtan, 1729-1808, Cholmondeley, George James Cholmondeley, Marquess of, 1749-1827, and Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806
"Gaetan Vestris (right) giving a dancing lesson to a gigantic goose with a human head and long pigtail queue. They face each other in profile. Vestris stands with his legs together, chest thrown out, his arms curved. "Regardez-moi" was his characteristic admonition. On a stool behind the goose is an open book inscribed "Electrical E. E. L."; on the ground at its feet is another inscribed "The Torpedo. Dedicated to Ld------C------. My Lord, I take the Liberty------ The greatness of whose Parts are known. . ." . This indicates that the goose is Lord Cholmondeley (1749-1827), "The Torpedo, a Poem to the Electrical Eel addressed to Mr John Hunter Surgeon" and "Dedicated to . . . Lord Cholmondeley," 4th ed. 1777, was a coarse and scurrilous poem, three lines of which are, "What tho' Lord Ch--lm--d--ly may conceal A most enormous length of Eel Admir'd for Size and bone:"In the wall which forms the background are two sash-windows and a door (left) round which a grinning youth, probably a servant, is looking. On the wall are half length portraits: three in ovals of elderly ladies in profile, one of a clergyman, full-face, wearing a biretta, his left hand on a book. There is also a picture of Fox, with a fox's head, seated opposite Cholmondeley; they are throwing dice. Fox appears satisfied, the other clenches his fist and exclaims in anger. A devil is climbing on the top of the frame and holds out a claw to grab the head of Fox. On the picture are the words "A Nick by God". Like Fox, see BMSat 5972, Cholmondeley held a faro bank at Brooks's. G.E.C., 'Complete Peerage'."-- British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from text at bottom of image., Printmaker and date of publication from British Museum catalogue., and Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
England
Subject (Name):
Vestris, Gaëtan, 1729-1808, Cholmondeley, George James Cholmondeley, Marquess of, 1749-1827, and Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806
Title from caption below image., Initial letters of the name "JBaldrey" in signature and imprint form a monogram., Artist attribution to Bunbury from British Museum catalogue., Later state with altered imprint statement. For earlier state, see Lewis Walpole Library call no.: Bunbury 781.04.12.01.1., and Mounted to 31 x 39 cm.
Publisher:
Publish'd April 12th, 1781, by JBaldrey, No. 37 Green St. Grosr. Sqr., & E. Hedges, No. 92 Cornhill
Title from caption below image., Initial letters of printmaker's name in signature form a monogram., Artist attribution to Bunbury from description of later state in the British Museum catalogue., and Early state. For later state with altered imprint statement, see no. 5878 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 5.
Publisher:
Publish'd April 12th, 1781, by W. Richardson, York House No. 31 Strand
