1775

The PRODIGAL SON Receives his PATRIMONY

Published as the Act directs Jany 2, 1775 by Carington Bowles at his Map & Print Warehouse, no. 69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London

Seated at his writing desk (c.) the father hands a paper, perhaps an accounting or letter of credit, to a son who bows as gratefully as he receives it. The other brother, stands (r.) with his back to the viewer, arms crossed. He is plainly dressed while the departing brother wears fashionable riding gear and a sword. On the writing desk, two sets of stacked coins, on either side of the quill, and a paper on the remaining brother's end also point to the division of the estate that the father has completed. On the far right, a black servant carries the prodigal's trunk out the door on his shoulder.

This impression is the first of a series of six from the shop of Carington Bowles, The History of the Prodigal Son, attributed to John Raphael Smith. These prints and their relationship to other Prodigal Son images has been discussed extensively by Ellen G. D'Oench in "Prodigal Sons and Fair Pentitents: Transformations in Eighteenth-Century Popular Prints."Art History, Summer 1990: 318-343, and her catalog for Prodigal Son Narratives 1480-1980, Yale University Art Gallery, 1995.

Series Reproduced: D'Oench (1990), p. 327; D'Oench (1995), p. 15; D'Oench(1999), p. 19.

Cat: D'Oench (1995), p. 193-94.

Yale Center for British Art

The PRODIGAL SON TAKING LEAVE

Published as the Act directs Jany 2, 1775 by Carington Bowles at his Map & Print Warehouse, no. 69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London

A scene outside the manor door as the son with sword, riding boots, and spurs prepares to mount a dappled horse. A black servant (l.) holds the reins and those of another horse. The gentleman looks back at his father who clasps his hands to his chest as if imploring his son not to leave. In the doorway stands a young man and woman. He stands relaxed with feet crossed, she with one hand on his chest. This outdoor scene differs from Bowles later mezzotint (BM 8227) that shows a young man in interior hallway preparing to leave in a coach. Reproduced in Joan Dolmetsch, Eighteenth Century Prints in Colonial America, p. 155.

Library Company of Philadelphia

The PRODIGAL SON IN EXCESS

Published as the Act directs Jany 2, 1775 by Carington Bowles at his Map & Print Warehouse, no. 69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London

The Prodigal Son (c.) sits with his arm around two courtesans, one (l.) seated on his lap holds a peach, the other (r.) holds a wineglass in one hand and tickles his chin with the other. The table before them holds two decanters, two wineglasses, plate of ripe peaches, and two candlesticks with lighted candles--a profusion of items with bawdy significance. On the far left sits a silly young man with his hands in his pocket, and on the far right, a young gentlemen shows an older woman, likely the procuress, the scene.

Yale Center for British Art

The PRODIGAL SON IN MISERY

Published as the Act directs Jany 2, 1775 by Carington Bowles at his Map & Print Warehouse, no. 69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London

The Prodigal Son reclines disconsolate in a desolate landscape with two hogs feeding nearby, one behind him, the other rooting in a box. He looks devastated, one breechleg torn over the thigh, his jacket ripped and fallen off the shoulder. The landscape has a desolate air with a blasted tree in the foreground, a streaked and gloomy sky, and far off on the horizon, a lone building. A walking stick with a small bundle lies before him on the ground.

Yale Center for British Art

The PRODIGAL SON RETURNS RECLAIM'D

Published as the Act directs Jany 2, 1775 by Carington Bowles at his Map & Print Warehouse, no. 69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London

The father receives the penitent son (r.) who stands before him, dressed in torn clothes as in The Prodigal Son In Misery. One servant kneels between them replacing the son's battered shoes, another is seen coming from the left with a cloak to cover his bare shoulder. Behind the son (r.) stands a woman, dressed in a dark shawl and hat, who also appears contrite, her head bowed and hands crossed. In the background, a farmer stands before a barn feeding a cow.

Yale Center for British Art

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University

The PRODIGAL SON FEASTED on his RETURN

Published as the Act directs Jany 2, 1775 by Carington Bowles at his Map & Print Warehouse, no. 69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London

At a large oval table, the father (c.) clasps the shoulder of the son (l.) who carves a large roast. The dishes about the table hold a plentiful feast. An older man with a white wig and large napkin takes a bite as he looks on. The other brother sits, back to the viewer, as in the first plate, raising a glass as toast to the redeemed son. Two women (r.) talk earnestly between themselves. A servant stands behind the father with a wineglass on a tray. Through a door in the background, two men can be seen talking. On the upper left, from a painting within an ornate frame, three figures seem to look on approvingly.

Yale Center for British Art (B1977.14.11004-11008)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

The Head of______an ALDERMAN finished by Cupid

Publish'd as the Act directs 10th Jany 1775 by S. Hooper, No 25 Ludgate Hill

The alderman sits for his portrait holding his walking stick, his head turned away in profile. His younger wife is seated, palette and brushes in her right hand near her lap, before the canvas on which the alderman is sketched in profile. Her left hand is outstretched, either gesturing her husband to hold his pose or because Cupid has snatched her brush. Hovering above the portrait, Cupid boldly sketches horns on the portrait, an addition occasioned by a young man who leans with his hand on the back of her chair to kiss the paintress. He may be their art instructor since the two little boys who look on from a desk or table to the far right are also drawing. See also The Method of High Finishing Family Pictures (1771).

35 x 24.7 cm.
Library of Congress (PC3+1775)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University

The OLD BALLAD SINGER

Printed for Carington Bowles at his Map & Print Warehouse No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Publish'd as the Act directs 18 Jany 1775

A mother and her young son pause as they walk along a churchyard wall to listen to a ballad singer who leans on his walking stick and sings as he holds out a handful of ballads for sale. The church in the background, beyond the wall and a green, is St. Pauls. The Huntington Library has two copies of The Old Ballad Singer, one titled and inscribed above, the other without title, but inscribed "Painted by G. Carter, Engraved by J.R. Smith, Published 18 Jany 1775."

Reproduced: D'Oench(1999) p. 23

Cat: D'Oench (1999), p. 194

33x 25 cm.
Huntington Library (BMX 1775 Pr.Box 211.3/8), Yale Center for British Art (date erased, B1970.3.760)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

LISTENERS NEVER HEAR/ ANY GOOD OF THEMSELVES

Pubd. 25th Feby. 1775 by W. Humphrey, Gerrard St. Soho

A portly, aged gentleman (r.) leans on his walking stick eavesdropping, hidden behind a door opening into a sitting room. There a young woman seated upon a couch opens her arms to embrace a handsome gentlemen who strides toward her. The older man appears rivotted as he listens, his gaze sidelong toward the door, an admonishing finger raised. The verse explains:

While Squaretoes slily creeps behind,
Thinking some secret Plot to find;
The List'ning Old Suspicious Elf,
Proves all the Mischief on Himself//
For oh! His youthful Blooming Honey,
Means to Elope with all his Mony,
From whence the Proverbs understood,
That List'ners never hear of good.

Surviving impressions inscribe publisher and date.

32.5 x 25 cm.
New York Public Library (title and verse only, n.d.Satyr p.207)

© The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Conversion of Galen

London.Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett, No.53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 1st March 1775

Galen, wrapped in toga, stands gazing down at a skeleton. While the figure of Galen and skeleton are similar, the image differs in its setting from the Carington Bowles' Galen's Conversion, engraved by J.R. Smith and published August 1774. The Bowles'print, reproduced D'Oench (1999), p. 16, shows a cave or grotto with hanging vines. The Sayer & Bennett Conversion is set in a mountainous landscape with shrubs and trees growing on the surrounding cliffs. The subtext reads: "Galen tho' an Atheist was a strict observer of Nature 'till by Accident of finding a Skeleton, he thought it of too curious a Construction to be the Production of Chance." The verse admonishes:

Return, vain man, return to Reason's Eye,
Thro' the vast Depths of dark immensity:
Nor think thy narrow but presumptuous Mind
The least Idea of thy God can find:
Thought crowding thought disturbs the labring Brain:
For how can Finite Infinite explain.
Then God adore and consider rest in this,
None but Himself can compass Him as he is.

32.1 x 25.3 cm.
Metropolitan Museum (colour, 44.13.34)

Untitled [Lady with a Dog]

Willson Pinxt. Smith fecit

London. Printed for R. Sayer & J.Bennett, Map & Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs, 1 July1775

A young lady in low-cut gown with ruffled neckline looks right and down at the spaniel she holds. The dog licks at her cheek. She wears a tasselled scarf that is knotted under her chin and a jewelled star earring.

The painting by George Willison is engraved by J.R. Smith

Catalogued: D'Oench (1999), p. 195.

Huntington Library (283000 36 #69)

Le Patiserie--vide Yoricks Journey

Painted by A. Rymsdyk Engraved by J.R. Smith

Yorick approaches an old soldier, a Chevalier de St Louis, who has been reduced to selling pastries on the streets of Versailles. The man stands (l.) with his basket, the croix on a ribbon that distinguishes him pinned above his apron. Yorick stands in profile, wearing a cocked hat and holding a walking stick in one hand as he gestures toward the man with the other. The man points to the croix as if telling his tale. Nine months later, Yorick writes, the tale of this gallant officer would reach the king, who would relieve him with a pension.

The image is set in a oval and the inscriptions on the Huntington Library impression are rough as if hand-inscribed. D'Oench's cataloguing includes the date, 10 April 1775.

Reproduced: D'Oench (1999), p.26.

Catalogued: D'Oench (1999), p. 195.

35.4 x 24.7 cm.
Huntington Library (283000 31#25)

The Grace

Geo. Carter Pinxt. J.R. Smith fecit.

London. Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett No. 53 Fleet Street. Published as the Act directs 18 July 1775. Vide Yoricks Sentimental Journey Vol. III, Page 192

After supper with the family, Yorick (r.) sits on a "sopha of turf" outside the cottage between an aging peasant and his wife. A circle of nine children from small to grown dance before the cottage door while the father plays a vielle, a stringed instrument played by turning a crank. Within the circle an older daughter and son gaze upward reverently. She has her hands crossed over her breast, he has his raised. Yorick looks pensive as he views this scene. An insciption reads: "That a Chearfull and Contented Mind is the best thanks an Illiterate Peasant can Pay." The sense of the title is evident in the paragraph from which the inscription is taken.

It was not until the middle of the second dance , when, from some pauses in the movement wherein they all seemed to look up, I fancied I could distinguish an elevation of spirit different from that which is the cause or the effect of simple jollity--In a word, I thought I beheld Religion mixing in the dance--but as I had never seen her so I engaged, I should have looked upon it now, as one of the illusions of an imagination which is eternally misleading me, had not the old man, as soon as the dance ended, said, that this was their constant way; and that all his life long he had made it a rule, after supper was over, to call out his family to dance and rejoice; believing, he said, that a chearful and contented mind was the best sort of thanks to heaven that an illiterate peasant could pay--
--Or a learned prelate either, said I.

This impression is larger than most in this catalogue but is related to other mezzotints from the period that illustrate contemporary literature--for instance, works by Fielding and Sheridan, or another from Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey entitled Le Patiserie--vide Yoricks Journey (above).

Reproduced: D'Oench (1999), p. 24.

Catalogued: D'Oench(1999), p.195.

45.4 x 55.3 cm.
Huntington Library (283000 31#24); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (62.602.206)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Library of Congress

THE BEAUTIES

Pub'd Octr 20th 1775 by W Humphrey, Gerrard Street, Soho

Two aging dandies with bulbous noses meet in a park. The one (r.) looks out and points to the other who poses as a gallant, walking one hand on hip, holding a cocked hat, and waving a greeting with the other. Both wear wigs with side curls. The figure on the right has a club attached behind. The text reads: "Look through the World, you'll seldom see, Folks with such Faces as we Three." This is Humphrey's version of a subject also published by Carington Bowles (BMC 4542) at about the same time, though in Bowles' print the figures are a man and woman. Describing the Bowles'print, Stephens conjectures that "we Three" is intended to include the spectator.

35 x 25.2 cm.
Library of Congress (PC3+1775)