"A man with a prodigious stomach and projecting nose and mouth stands at left in profile, opposite an elderly woman whose profile is shaped to accommodate his, having a crescent face with projecting forehead and chin, her body bent back and curved in at the waist and stomach, with bent knees."--British Museum online catalogue, description of a different version of the same design
Alternative Title:
Docto Convex and Lady Concave and Doctor Convex and Lady Concave
Description:
Title etched below image; the three letters "n" are all etched backwards., Printmaker attribution and date of publication from a nearly identical print with the signature "Rowlandson inv." and the imprint "Pubd. Novr. 20, 1802, by R. Ackermann, No. 101 Strand"; see British Museum online catalogue, registration no.: 1948,0214.593. See also: Grego, J. Rowlandson the caricaturist, v. 2, page 41., "Man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter, is he not also the only one that deserves to be laughed at?"--Text below title., and Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires.
"Seurat, see British Museum Satires No. 14882, &c, stands full-face before a curtained archway, displaying himself to ladies (left and right) who crowd to see him. Both arms are raised from the extended elbows, and in his left hand is a wig of short hair that he has just taken off. He says: I am de Anatomie Vivante dat is come to Londres to please all de pretty Lady, and give dem all de much satisfaction. The notorieties are on the left, Mrs. Coutts, the only seated visitor, is the most prominent; she stares up at him through an opera-glass: Poor creature, he seems very little calculated in my opinion to please the ladies, tho' really he is as stout as the Old Banker was. She holds a pamphlet: Claude Seurat or The Living Skeleton. From her arm hangs a reticule ornamented with a flaming heart. Behind her chair (left) is Maria Foote, her arm round Mercandotti's waist. She says: What a very extraordinary Foot; the other answers: And a head as round as a Ball [see British Museum Satires No. 14549]. There are two others (? actresses) on this side. One stoops to finger Seurat's little petticoat, saying, I wonder what this is a yard? The other: I wonder how long he can stand in that position. On the other side, the two most prominent visitors wear wide-brimmed straw hats (cf. British Museum Satires No. 15183); with them is a little girl who wears drawers to the ankle. A hideous woman exclaims What a fright. Another says: I declare he is a greater curiosity than Senior Velluti; a third: My goodness Death upon wires. There are other comments."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched above image., Printmaker Robert Cruikshank's "R.C." initials are etched on the dog's collar in image., Text below image: A number of ladies have gone daily to view the French Living Skeleton in Pall-Mall since the commencement of the exhibition of this extraordinary being. Morning Chronicle, Augt. 13th., and Temporary local Medical Library subject terms: Anomalies -- Thinness.
Publisher:
Pubd. Septr. 1825 by J. Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate Hill
Subject (Name):
Seurat, Claude-Ambroise, 1798-1841,
Subject (Topic):
Freak Show, Thin people, Leanness, Human curiosities, Physical conditions, Spectators, Women, and Dogs
