A vain woman (Lady Pentweazle) sits to a portrait-painter (Carmine) while a servant holds her lapdog. Mezzotint by D. Lucas, 1832, after R. Smirke.

Smirke, Robert, 1752-1845.

Date:: [1832]

Reference:: 33188i

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Credit

A vain woman (Lady Pentweazle) sits to a portrait-painter (Carmine) while a servant holds her lapdog. Mezzotint by D. Lucas, 1832, after R. Smirke. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

Episode in Samel Foote's play 'Taste', 1752. The play is an amusing satire on the art market. In this episode, the vain and ugly Lady Pentweazle sits to a portrait-painter (Carmine), while her black slave holds her lapdog. Lady Pentweazle is saying,"All my family, by the mother's side, are famous for their eyes. I have a great aunt amongst the beauties at Windsor; she has a sister at Hampton Court, a perdegeous fine woman! she had but one eye, but that was a piercer: that one eye got her three husbands."

Publication/Creation

[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1832]

Physical description

1 print : mezzotint ; image 34 x 41.6 cm

Contributors

Lettering

Lettering in pencil on the reverse reads: D. Lucas

References note

Catalogue of the complete works of David Lucas engraver ... exhibited at Gooden and Fox's gallery, 57 Pall Mall, [London] 1903, no. 8, p. 23 (Lady Pentweazle. After Robert Smirke, R.A.), no. 140, p. 57 (Lady Pentweazle (engraver's proof). After Robert Smirke, R.A.), p. 61 (1832. Lady Pentweazle. R. Smirke, R.A.)

Reference

Wellcome Collection 33188i

Reproduction note

After: a painting by Robert Smirke acquired in 1963 by the (British) Government Art Collection. A related version showing only Lady Pentweazle and not the other figures is at Upton House, Warwickshire (Bearsted Collection, National Trust, no. 78)