Publication
[London] : Pubd. May 12th, 1787, by H. Humphrey, New Bond Street, [12 May 1787]
Notes
Title etched below image.
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue.
Three lines of quoted text following title: "Here, Love his golden shafts employs; here lights "his constant lamp; and waves his purple wings; "reigns here and revels." Milton.
Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Provenance
From a collection in twelve volumes probably compiled by Francis Harvey and sold at auction, Sotheby, London, June 1900. Bequest of Hugh Dudley Auchincloss to Yale University Library, 1981. Bound by Riviere & Son in three-quarters red morocco with gold tooling and gold lettering on spine.
Summary
"Five elderly women of fashion attend an altar of Love in a temple whose walls are wreathed with roses. The fat Mrs. Hobart, in profile to the right, pours incense on the flames of the altar; in her right hand is an open book, 'Ninon'. Behind her (left) Lady Archer, with the nose of a bird of prey, leads a lamb garlanded with roses; she guides the animal with a riding-whip. Miss Jefferies walks beside Lady Archer holding a basket of flowers. On the extreme left Lady Mount-Edgcumb, aged and bent, holds a dove in each hand. On the right of the altar Lady Cecilia Johnstone plays a lyre. The altar is decorated with rams' heads, a heart, arrows, and roses. A sculptured group of the three Graces stands in an alcove in the wall above the altar. In the background (left) is a mountain peak, Parnassus, on which sits a tiny figure of Apollo, playing a fiddle, the sun irradiating his head."--British Museum online catalogue.
References
Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 6., no. 7218
Wright, T. Works of James Gillray, the caricaturist, page 86
Wright, T. Historical and descriptive account of the caricatures by James Gillray, no. 374