print
- Museum number
- Cc,1.145
- Title
- Object: [View of Ranby's House]
- Description
-
View across a cornfield to Hogarth's house at Chiswick and neighbouring houses among trees; in the foreground, to left, a man holding a staff is seated beside a tree with a dog at his feet
Etching
- Production date
- 1781
- Dimensions
-
Height: 100 millimetres
-
Width: 151 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- According to John Nichols (Biographical Anecdotes, 1782, p.341) the plate was etched by Hogarth shortly after he took over the house at Chiswick in 1749, but was not intended to be published.That seems plausible: the style certainly suggests a print of the mid 18th century and that dating is further suggested by the absence of the bow window added to the house in the early 1750s. Paulson accepts the print as part of the Hogarth canon. Doubts are, however, raised by the fact that Mrs Hogarth does not add WH's name to the publication line. The attribution has therefore been changed to 'Formerly attributed to' (AVG and SO'C, 3 October 2023).
Inscriptions on an impression in the British Museum (1858,0417.577) and in the collection of Chiswick Library describe the view as showing John Ranby's house from Hogarth's window, but Val Bott points out that the house to left of centre is clearly Hogarth's house with the wall along the lane that survives into the 21st century (British Art Journal, Vol VIII, No 2, Autumn 2007, pp 34-38); she has also identified the field as Chiswick Common Field, shown in John Rocque's map of London and ten miles around, 1744-46.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1827 (before)
- Acquisition notes
- See comment on S,2.1.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Cc,1.145