The Duchess of Devonshire sits nursing a fox at her bare breast; the fox is dressed as a child, its paw on her lap. A child sits to her right crying, arms stretched towards her. On the left a cat licks the face of a dog while ignoring her kitten that crawls beside them. A cradle sits empty in the background (left).
Description:
Title and date from graphite pencil inscriptions in image., Study for the print of the same title, no. 6546 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 6., and With, on the opposite side of the sheet: a drawing for Reynard put to his shifts by the same artist.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain and Great Britain.
Subject (Name):
Cavendish, Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, 1757-1806, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, and Great Britain. Parliament
Subject (Topic):
Elections, 1784, Women in politics, Foxes, Breast feeding, Infants, Women, and Political activity
"The Duchess of Devonshire seated in a chair offers her bared breast to a fox dressed as an infant, which stands on its hind legs before her, placing a paw across her lap. Her own infant, seated on the ground (right) neglected, stretches out her arms to her mother with a protesting scream. In the foreground (left) a cat licks the face of a dog which sits on its hind legs, while a kitten crawls neglected beside it. Behind the animals is an empty cradle. On the wall (left) is Reynolds's portrait of the Duke of Devonshire standing beside his horse, as in British Museum Satires No. 6529. Another portrait (right) is of a stout man wearing a hat walking to the right, one hand in his pocket, the other resting on a stick (? Fox). These are freely sketched."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Watermark., and Formerly mounted on leaf 64 of volume 1 of 14 volumes.
Publisher:
Pubd. April 22, 1784, by Jno. Hanyer, Strand
Subject (Name):
Cavendish, Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, 1757-1806, Devonshire, William Cavendish, Duke of, 1748-1811, and Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806
Subject (Topic):
Foxes, Breast feeding, Infants, Cats, Dogs, and Cradles
