"Five elderly women of fashion attend an altar of Love in a temple whose walls are wreathed with roses. The fat Mrs. Hobart, in profile to the right, pours incense on the flames of the altar; in her right hand is an open book, 'Ninon'. Behind her (left) Lady Archer, with the nose of a bird of prey, leads a lamb garlanded with roses; she guides the animal with a riding-whip. Miss Jefferies walks beside Lady Archer holding a basket of flowers. On the extreme left Lady Mount-Edgcumb, aged and bent, holds a dove in each hand. On the right of the altar Lady Cecilia Johnstone plays a lyre. The altar is decorated with rams' heads, a heart, arrows, and roses. A sculptured group of the three Graces stands in an alcove in the wall above the altar. In the background (left) is a mountain peak, Parnassus, on which sits a tiny figure of Apollo, playing a fiddle, the sun irradiating his head."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., Three lines of quoted text following title: "Here, Love his golden shafts employs; here lights "his constant lamp; and waves his purple wings; "reigns here and revels." Milton., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Temporary local subject terms: Music -- Literary quotation: Milton -- Mythology: Parnassus -- Three graces -- Elizabeth Jeffries., Watermark: J. Whatman., and The ladies are identified in ink on the back of the print: Ldy. Cecilia Johnson, Mrs. Hobart, Ldy. Archer, Ldy. Edgcumbe.
Publisher:
Pubd. May 12th, 1787, by H. Humphrey, New Bond Street
Subject (Name):
Buckinghamshire, Albinia Hobart, Countess of, 1738-1816, Archer, Sarah West, Lady, 1741-1801, Mount Edgcumbe, Emma Gilbert, Lady, 1729-1807, and Johnston, Henrietta Cecilia, Lady, 1727-1817
Subject (Topic):
Graces, The, Apollo, Altars, Interiors, Temples, Books, Roses, and Lyres
