drawing;
print study
- Museum number
- 2011,7084.56
- Description
-
'Is this my Daughter Ann?'; satire on fashion. A street where, before a house [on the right], over the door of which the name 'Love Joy' is written, a sedan chair has been brought, in order to carry away a young lady, who, in a towering toupée, and other articles of fashionable attire of this period, is leaving the house in company with a young soldier, who caresses her as they go; she looks fondly at him. An old woman, in what was then an 'old-fashioned' costume is interposing to prevent the departure of the damsel. 1774
Pen and ink with watercolour
- Production date
- 1774
- Dimensions
-
Height: 177 millimetres
-
Width: 148 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The present watercolour, a study for a print made for Susanna Sledge, recounts a familiar theme of the daughter (or son) having abandoned rural life in favour of the city, where earlier rustic ways were relinquished and perceived to have been corrupted.
In the catalogue of the 2014 exhibition of Grimm’s work in Bern, Hauptman wrote: “(…) the surprised mother who asks the question of whether it is indeed her daughter, glimpses her with a macaroni in the doorway of a building on which is inscribed LOVE JOY. The reference is both a pun and the indication of a well-known establishment in London in Great Russell Street, “Lovejoys”, the proprietor of which was the aptly named Matthew Lovejoy. Grimm could hardly have lost the temptation to separate the name to indicate that the daughter has found love and joy now that she has left the stifling constrictions of the countryside.”
Grimm produced three such satires that year, two of which were published by Carrington Bowles. The British Museum holds two hand-coloured mezzotints of the same theme by the artist,1935,0522.1.39 and 1935,0522.1.38. For an impression from the plate by James Watson, after Grimm, see 2010,7081.1174.
Further reading:
William Hauptman, ‘Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, 1733-1794: A Very English Swiss’, exh. cat., Kunst Museum Bern, 2014, pp. 112-115.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2014, Jan-Apr, Bern, Kunstmuseum, 'Samuel Hieronymus Grimm'
- Acquisition date
- 2011
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
The annotation on the verso may indicate that the drawing belonged at one time to Robert Dighton.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2011,7084.56
