A satirical print rebuking the many writers who profited by writing memoirs of Samuel Johnson. On the left, Mrs. Piozzi is seated at her writing desk in her study. With a look of astonishment. she looks behind her at the ghost of Samuel Johnson in a night shirt who with his right hand points to the portraits of James Boswell and Sir John Hawkins on the wall and in his left hand holds a money purse. Another portrait on the far right depicts John Courtenay with a pen in his hand looking toward a bust of Prisian. On her desk is a letter "D Johnson ... Letters Dear Lady", implying that she has been concoting Johnson's letters to her. Immediately above her desk in the middle of the wall of books, a violin, an allusion to her second husband a musician, obscures the portrait of her first husband Henry Thrale
Alternative Title:
Frontispiece for the 2d edition of Dr. Johnson's letters
Description:
Title etched below image., Signed with the monogram of James Sayers., Twenty-four lines of verse in two columns below title: Madam! my debt to nature paid, I thought the grave with hallow'd shade would now protect my name ..., and Contemporary mss. note on verso.
A satirical print rebuking the many writers who profited by writing memoirs of Samuel Johnson. On the left, Mrs. Piozzi is seated at her writing desk in her study. With a look of astonishment. she looks behind her at the ghost of Samuel Johnson in a night shirt who with his right hand points to the portraits of James Boswell and Sir John Hawkins on the wall and in his left hand holds a money purse. Another portrait on the far right depicts John Courtenay with a pen in his hand looking toward a bust of Prisian. On her desk is a letter "D Johnson ... Letters Dear Lady", implying that she has been concoting Johnson's letters to her. Immediately above her desk in the middle of the wall of books, a violin, an allusion to her second husband a musician, obscures the portrait of her first husband Henry Thrale
Alternative Title:
Frontispiece for the 2d edition of Dr. Johnson's letters
Description:
Title etched below image., Signed with the monogram of James Sayers., Twenty-four lines of verse in two columns below title: Madam! my debt to nature paid, I thought the grave with hallow'd shade would now protect my name ..., and Mounted on page 57 with one other print.
A satirical print rebuking the many writers who profited by writing memoirs of Samuel Johnson. On the left, Mrs. Piozzi is seated at her writing desk in her study. With a look of astonishment. she looks behind her at the ghost of Samuel Johnson in a night shirt who with his right hand points to the portraits of James Boswell and Sir John Hawkins on the wall and in his left hand holds a money purse. Another portrait on the far right depicts John Courtenay with a pen in his hand looking toward a bust of Prisian. On her desk is a letter "D Johnson ... Letters Dear Lady", implying that she has been concoting Johnson's letters to her. Immediately above her desk in the middle of the wall of books, a violin, an allusion to her second husband a musician, obscures the portrait of her first husband Henry Thrale
Alternative Title:
Frontispiece for the 2d edition of Dr. Johnson's letters
Description:
Title etched below image., Signed with the monogram of James Sayers., Twenty-four lines of verse in two columns below title: Madam! my debt to nature paid, I thought the grave with hallow'd shade would now protect my name ..., 1 print : etching with stipple on laid paper ; plate mark 25 x 17.7 cm, on sheet 27.2 x 19.4 cm., and Mounted on leaf 39 of James Sayers's Folio album of 144 caricatures.
Volume 1, after page xxxvi. Anecdotes, observations, and characters, of books and men.
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
Samuel Johnson is shown full-length on the left, facing right and apparently asleep standing up; his knees are bent, his eyes are closed, and his head rests on his left hand. A second man stands on the right, hands in his coat pockets, looking over at Johnson; this figure may be Sir John Hawkins
Alternative Title:
Scene from Boswell's 'Tour'
Description:
Title and date supplied by curator., Alternative title from description of original drawing in: Riely, J. The age of Horace Walpole in caricature. New Haven : Yale University Library, 1973, no. 48., After a drawing that is probably the work of Samuel Collings., Printmaker attribution to Rowlandson from unverified data in local card catalog record., Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum., Mounted to 38 x 27 cm., and Bound in after page xxxvi (leaf numbered '41' in pencil) in volume 1 of an extra-illustrated copy of: Spence, J. Anecdotes, observations, and characters, of books and men.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Name):
Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 and Hawkins, John, 1719-1789