"Sir William Hamilton, old and bent, inspects his antiques. He stands in profile to left, looking through spectacles held in his right hand and reversed. He wears a round hat, a spencer over his coat and spurred top-boots, a stick in his (gloved) left hand; an expressive glove issues from his coat pocket. The objects at which he gazes are on a cloth-covered table. In the centre is a bust of 'Lais', the head that of Lady Hamilton, with fashionably dressed hair, but with nose, mouth, and chin broken away. Next it is a nude and headless Bacchante holding up a bunch of grapes (this was one of his wife's famous attitudes). Behind is a term with the head of a bull inscribed 'APIS'. Other objects are a weeping Cupid with a broken arrow, a grotesque goblet, a cracked chamber-pot on which nude figures dance. Against the wall (right) stands a mummy-like figure of 'MIDAS', with ass's ears. Other grotesque and broken objects stand on the carpet. On the wall are four pictures (left to right): 'Cleopatra', Lady Hamilton, three-quarter length, indecently décolletée and holding a bottle of 'Gin'; 'Mark Antony', Nelson, three-quarter length, a sea-fight in the background; a volcano in eruption; 'Claudius', a profile half length of Hamilton turning his back on the other pictures, the frame decorated with a stag's head."--British Museum online catalogue.
Alternative Title:
Cognocenti contemplating the beauties of the antique and Cognoscenti contemplating the beauties of the antique
Description:
Title etched below image.
Publisher:
H. Humprey, No. 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Hamilton, Emma,--Lady,--1761?-1815--Caricatures and cartoons., Hamilton, William,--Sir,--1730-1803--Caricatures and cartoons., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher., and Nelson, Horatio Nelson,--Viscount,--1758-1805--Caricatures and cartoons.
"A bedroom scene. Lady Hamilton, grotesquely fat, but with traces of beauty in her features, rises from a curtained bed, arms and one leg extended in a burlesqued gesture of despair. She wears a nightgown and lace-trimmed cap. Behind her in the shadowed depths of the bed the night-capped head of her elderly and (?) sleeping husband, rests on the pillow. She looks, weeping, towards an open sash-window through which is seen a fleet sailing towards the horizon. In the window (left) is a cushioned window seat on which (besides a stocking) is an open book: 'Studies of Academic Attitudes taken from the Life'; on one page is a nude woman lying in sensual abandonment. On the right against the curtains of the bed is a dressing-table on which, besides toilet-articles, are a flask of 'Maraschino', a 'Composing Draught', and a pot of 'Rouge à la Naples'. On the carpeted floor (right) are objects from Sir W. Hamilton's collection, with an open book: 'Antiquities of Herculaneum Naples Caprea &c. &c.'; on the right page is a satyr chasing a nymph. They include an oval gem, a figure of a squatting monster, headless, the base inscribed 'Pri[apus]', a laughing bust of 'Messalina', statues of a Venus and a Satyr, coins or medals, one inscribed 'Ovid', another 'Tibertius'. In front of Lady Hamilton are the slippers she has kicked off, and a garter inscribed 'The Hero of the Nile'."--British Museum online catalogue.
Description:
"Dido" is a reference to a character from Virgil's Aeneid., Four lines of quoted verse, two on either side of title, etched below image: "Ah, where & ah where, is my gallant sailor gone? "He's gone to fight the Frenchmen, for George upon the throne. "He's gone to fight [the] Frenchmen, t' loose t' other arm & eye. "And left me with the old antiques, to lay me down & cry., and Title etched below image.
Publisher:
H. Humprey, No. 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Gillray, James, 1756-1815, artist., Hamilton, Emma,--Lady,--1761?-1815--Caricatures and cartoons., Hamilton, William,--Sir,--1730-1803--Caricatures and cartoons., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher., Nelson, Horatio Nelson,--Viscount,--1758-1805--Caricatures and cartoons., and Virgil.--Aeneis--Parodies, imitations, etc.--depicted.
Subject (Topic):
Antiques., Bedrooms. , Interiors., Obesity. , and Window seats.
"A caricature of Hamilton, in back view, in the form of a porcelain vase standing on a (chipped) base inscribed: 'D AM.N.Q.V.I.Σ.Σ.Ω.N'. The wig, with black bag, forms the cover of the vase. The shoulders are enormously wide and curved, with large projecting epaulettes. The curved body of the vase, broadened by the arms, dwindles to the coat-tails, and rests on a stem consisting of two short and bulging legs terminating in ungainly buckled shoes. See BMSat 9753."--British Museum online catalogue.
Alternative Title:
From Sir William Hamilton's collection
Description:
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue. and Title etched below image.
Publisher:
H. Humprey, No. 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Hamilton, William,--Sir,--1730-1803--Caricatures and cartoons., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., and Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.