print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1851,0901.60
- Title
- Object: A smuggling machine or a convenient Cos(au)way for a man in miniature
- Description
-
A portrait of Richard Cosway, R.A., standing under the wide hooped petticoat of a tall lady, his wife, Maria, who puts her arms round him. His head and shoulders emerge from the petticoat slightly below the level of her waist; his face is in profile looking upwards. His right hand clutches her cloak, his left, is round her waist. She wears a flat ribbon-trimmed hat, and looks down at him saying, "Tis geting nothing - nay - tisgeting worse than nothing."
In the background, on; the wall (right), is a picture of a little man wearing a bag-wig and sword, climbing up a ladder which rests on the breast of a woman. Beneath it is engraved:
"Lowliness is Young Ambitions Ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his Face
But when he once attains the upmost round
He then unto the Ladder turns his back,
Looks unto the clouds - scornin [sic] the base degrees
By which he did assend.
Shak. Jul. Caesar." 1 January 1782
Etching with use of the rocker
- Production date
- 1782
- Dimensions
-
Height: 277 millimetres
-
Width: 236 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935)
This represents Cosway climbing to fame, the woman being either Angelica Kauffmann or the Duchess of Devonshire. J. T. Smith, 'Nollekens and his Times', ed. W. Whitten, ii. 329, where the print is reproduced.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1995 Aug-Oct, Edinburgh, SNPG, Regency Artists
1995/6 Nov-Feb, London, NPG, Regency Artists
- Acquisition date
- 1851
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1851,0901.60
