A 1787 fencing match between a man and a woman in the elegant rooms of Carlton House, London. In the audience stands the Prince of Wales who had arranged this fencing demonstration between Mademoiselle d'Eon (right), and Monsieur de Saint George (left). Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont (1728-1810), known as the Chevalier d'Eon, who lived the first half of his life as a man and the second half as a woman. The fencer on the left is Joseph de Bologne de Saint-Georges or the Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799), who was the son of a wealthy plantation owner in the French West Indies colony of Guadeloupe and one of his African slaves named Anne
Alternative Title:
Assault and Fencing match
Description:
Title engraved below image., After the painting by Victor Marie Picot., and Sheet trimmed within plate mark; design cropped.
Publisher:
Published by Corbeau at Paris and by Robinde at London
Subject (Name):
George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830., Eon de Beaumont, Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée d', 1728-1810., and Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne, chevalier de, 1745-1799.
Five rows with titled dot-and-line figure vignettes engaged in various activities including fencing, duelling, interpersonal actions. Top row from left to right show the stick figures (or "pin men"): "Asking to dance", "Leading out", "Hands round", "Down the middle", "Right & left" and "Setting". Second row from left to right: "Cross hands", "Pousette", "Hornpipe", "Tete à tete", "Fainting", and "Taking home royal". Third row: "Battledore", Tight rope", "Single stick". Fourth row: "Believe me", "O' how lovely", "Don't [illegible] me", "Feeling queer". Fifth row: "Feeling querrer", "Attack", and "Friends arriving too late"
Description:
Title from related published print., Formerly mounted on blue paper with residue on the back of the sheet., The first two lines are identical (with the exception for a slight change in the title of the third figure, top row) to a plate entitled "Dottator et lineator loquitur" and published in: Ackermann's Repository of Arts for February 1, 1817, following page 90., An example of the "line and dot" caricature., The genre was perhaps originated by G.M. Woodward who designed two plates of acrobatic feats, &c., entitled 'Multum in Parvo, or Lilliputian Sketches shewing what may be done by lines and dots'. See Curator's note to British Museum online catalogue, Registration number: 1935,0522.10.220.b, and The published print was accompanied by a satirical poem from the artist's perspecive, scorning the great masters' classical training in figure drawing and sculpture.