The Eighteenth Century in English CaricatureBrinton, Selwyn
History
The Eighteenth Century in English Caricature
Brinton, Selwyn
Caricatures and cartoons -- Great Britain
These are what may be characterised as fancy sketches, which are often,
in his hand, singularly graceful and charming in treatment and
conception. "The Song," "The Dance," and "Morning Employments" may be
mentioned especially among these, all these three having been entrusted
to the graver of the famous Bartolozzi. Indeed, in writing of
Bartolozzi,[7] I found it impossible to leave Bunbury out of my subject,
and said of this artist: "He supplied the engraver with some charming
drawings, mostly of English girls in simple country dress--such as the
'Sophia and Olivia,' drawn for Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield,' where
one of the girls touches a guitar and the other holds a roll of music;
or, again, that very lovely print, a copy of which is in the Victoria
and Albert collection, where three young girls dance hand in hand to
the strain which a country lad seated near them is piping. 'The Song,'"
I added, "a pendant to this, is no less charming."
"Love and Honour" is another of Bartolozzi's prints from Bunbury,
representing a Light-Cavalry soldier taking leave of a pretty country
girl, and bearing the legend:
"Hark! the drum commands
Honour! I attend thee!
Love, I kiss thy hands!"
"Lucy of Leinster" and "Bothwell's Lament," it may be noted, are by the
same engraver. Apart from its own beauty the engraving of "The Dance" is
of especial interest, since the three figures dancing are said to be
taken from those famous beauties of the time, the Misses Gunning; and in
his "Love and Hope," "Love and Jealousy," and a "Tale of Love," which
Bartolozzi's pupil, J. K. Sherwin, engraved for him, he follows with
success the same class of subject. It is the sentimental charm, which
streams from the fair Angelica Kauffman's pencil and kept busy the best
engravers of the time, notably Bartolozzi, Ryland, Sherwin, and Tomkins,
which here attracts the soldier and caricaturist, who was also the
devoted lover and husband; and in these prints, though the initiative
and conception is certainly our artist's, it is difficult to know how
much we may not owe to the practised hand of such an engraver as
Francesco Bartolozzi.
But certainly this side of art was treated by Henry Bunbury freely, and
with marked success, and the list would be a long one if we were to
attempt to chronicle all. "Edwin and Ethelinda," "Black-eyed Susan,"
"Auld Robin Gray" (a charming colour-print, also engraved by
Bartolozzi), "Adelaide in the Garden" (by the same engraver), the
charming "Songstress," "Charlotte and Werther's meeting," "Margaret's
Tomb," "The Girl of Snowdon," "The Girl of Modena," "Marianna,"
"Cicely," and that sweet "Country Maid" engraved by J. R. Smith in 1782,
and whose legend tells us:
"No care but Love can discompose her breast,
Love of all cares the sweetest and the best."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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