<< YCBA Home Yale Center for British Art Yale Center for British Art << YCBA Home

YCBA Collections Search

 
IIIF Actions
Copy Caption to clipboard | Print Record | Large Print Record
Creator:
Engraved by John Raphael Smith, 1752–1812
after William Redmore Bigg, 1755–1828
Title:
A Lady and Her Children Relieving a Cottager
Date:
1784
Materials & Techniques:
Mezzotint and line engraving on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 17 5/16 × 21 3/4 inches (44 × 55.3 cm), Image: 16 5/8 × 21 3/4 inches (42.2 × 55.2 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Lettered, below image, lower left: "Painted by W,, Bigg."; below image, lower center: "A LADY and her CHILDREN relieving a COTTAGER. | London. Publish'd March 1 1781. by I. Birchell. No 473. Strand"; below image, lower right: "Engrav'd by J.R. Smith."

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.9648
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
baby | basket | beggar | charity | children | children | coin | costume | cottage | country house | dog (animal) | fence | genre subject | mother | parasol | portrait | promenade | servant | turban | umbrella | walking
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:6398
Export:
XML
IIIF Manifest:
JSON

John Raphael Smith’s print, engraved after a painting by William Redmore Bigg, shows a wealthy mother instructing her two children in the practice of charity. Her young son (wearing a dress, as was common for boys under the age of eight) clings to his mother’s skirts, as she directs him to give a coin to a poor cottager and infant child living on their estate. This scene is observed by a young turbaned servant, who carries the lady’s parasol and cloak and seems to look on with sympathy. It is unclear whether his presence as a conspicuous marker of the lady’s wealth was intended by Bigg, or would have been received by his viewers, as problematic or morally objectionable. When Bigg exhibited his painting in 1781, an anonymous reviewer praised it simply as “A sweet picture—Nature pursued with taste and real sentiment.”

Gallery label for Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-10-02 - 2014-12-14)

Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-10-02 - 2014-12-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Figures of Empire : Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2014, p. 42, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://britishart.yale.edu/sites/default/files/inline/Figures%20of%20Empire_booklet_FINAL.pdf [YCBA]

Figures of Empire : Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2014, p. 42, V 2556 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Slavery and Portraiture in 18th-century Atlantic Britain, [Website] , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2015, https://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/ [Website]


If you have information about this object that may be of assistance please contact us.