[The march to Finchley] [graphic].

[State 1, unfinished proof (the etching) before letters].

[London] : [Wm. Hogarth], [December 1750]

1 print : etching ; plate mark 43 x 56 cm

laid paper.

George Steevens bequeathed this collection to William Windham (1750-1810). At Windham's death, the collection was put up for sale on 20 July 1810 and was bought in by Mrs. Windham at 292 guineas; by descent through the Windham family; Sotheby's, 17 February 1919 to Dyson Perrins for £400; Sotheby's sale including Property of the Late C.W. Dyson Perrins, Esq., 11 June 1959, lot 100 purchased by Maggs Bros. for W.S. Lewis for £1300.

"The March to Finchley"; scene at Tottenham Court (after the painting in the Foundling Museum) with soldiers gathering to march north to defend London from the Jacobite rebels; the crowd includes, in the foreground, a man urinating painfully against a wall as he reads an advertisement for Dr. Rock's remedy for venereal disease, an innocent young piper, a drunken drummer, a young soldier with a pregnant ballad seller (her basket contains "God Save our Noble King" and a portrait of the Duke of Cumberland) and a Jacobite harridan selling newspapers, a milkmaid being kissed by one soldier while another fills his hat from her pail, a muffin man, a young chimney sweep, a gin-seller whose emaciated baby reaches for a drink. In the background a boxing match takes place under the sign of Giles Gardiner (Adam and Eve depicted), a wagon loaded with equipment follows the marching soldiers and, to the right, prostitutes lean from the windows of a brothel at the sign of Charles II's head; beyond the sunlight shines on Hampstead village on the hill."--British Museum online catalogue.

English

May 13, 2016