catalogue text.indd - Sanders of Oxford

Condition: Overall toning otherwise in excellent condition
framed in original frame.
[30189]
£450
image itself; on the left hand side. [29970]
£600
4. The Widow of an Indian Chief Watching the Arms
of Her Deceased Husband
Mezzotint
John Raphael Smith after Joseph Wright of Derby
London, Pubd. Jany. 29, 1789 by I.R.Smith N.31 King
Street, Covt: Garden.
Image 438 x 507 mm, Sheet 478 x 526 mm
unmounted
Wright of Derby completed the painting on which this
print was based in 1785. It was exhibited with a companion
piece, ‘The Lady in Milton’s Comus’, at Mrs. Robin’s
Rooms in the same year. Together, the works were
believed to have been a display of female fortitude. The
source of his Indian Widow was James Adair’s historical
text ‘The History of the American Indians’, which was
published in London, 1775.
In Wright’s work, the Native American widower sits in
profile beneath a cropped tree bearing weapons. The sun,
centrally placed and illuminating nearby clouds, also
sheds its light on an erupting volcano to the right hand
side of the image.
Inscription content: Lettered below image with title. Only
‘Wright’ remains of the artist’s inscription to the left,
whereas on the right, it states ‘Engraved by J R Smith,
Mezzotinto Engraver to his Royal Highns the Prince of
Wales; & his Serene Highns the Duke of Orleans,’
J. Egerton p.144; Frankau 375; O’Dench 301
5. Time Smoking a Picture
Etching and aquatint
William Hogarth
London, Baldwin, Craddock & Joy, 1822
Image 219 x 170 mm, Plate 244 x 182 mm, Sheet 392 x
325 mm
unmounted
Caption below image reads: As Statues moulder into
Worth. P:W.
To Nature and your Self appeal, Nor learn of others, what
to feel_.
The image was initially designed as a subscription ticket
for Hogarth’s painting ‘Sigismunda’. A winged Father
Time perches on a broken statue, blowing pipe-smoke at
a dark landscape painting which he has pierced with his
scythe. The broken hand of the statue points to a large jar
labelled ‘VARNISH’. The method of smoking at a picture
was often used by forgers in an attempt to age a painting.
Hogarth satirises how connoisseurs valued paintings for
their age and the effects of time. Effectively, Hogarth is
saying “Time is not a beautifier but a destroyer”.
Paulson 208 III/III.
Condition: Excellent impression with full margins, waterstain
to left hand margin, not affecting plate or image.
[30098]
£190
Condition: Trimmed on the left side of the print inside
of the platemark. Ink smeared onto the right hand side
margin, just outside of platemark. Two small holes in the