DOI Kapitel:
Chapter VIII
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62095#0100
Eighteenth-Century Colour-Prints 71
of mythological tendency, of which the following are not the least attractive : “ Lais ” ;
“ Hector and Andromache ” ; “ The Parting of Achilles and Briseis ” ; “ Chryses restored
to her Father ” ; “ Nymph of Immortality crowning the bust of Shakespeare ” ;
“ Fortune.” He also executed “ A St. James’s Beauty,” and “ A St. Giles’s Beauty,” after
Benwell ; some charming prints after Singleton. “ Lady Jane Dundas,” after Hoppner, is
good; and “Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire,” and “ Isabella, Duchess of Rutland,”
after Nixon, are two miniatures that no collector could afford to be without.
With certain painters Bartolozzi was particularly happy, but he never could translate
or comprehend Peters, and Morland’s idiosyncrasies suited him hardly better. Some of
his most charming colour-prints are from his own designs; and he also seems to have
excelled in making water-colour “ extracts from the works of contemporary painters
for the guidance of engravers and colour-printers.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE WORK OF FRANCESCO BARTOLOZZI
Plate III. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, eldest daughter of John, first Earl
Spencer, and his Countess Margaret Georgiana, nee Poyntz, was born 5th June 1757 ; was
married, as his first wife, to William, fifth Duke of Devonshire, 5th June 1774 ; and died
30th March 1806.
Next to the Prince and his favourites, the Duchess of Devonshire was the most
prominent figure of eighteenth-century society. How she became known as “ Fox’s
Duchess,” owing to the ardour with which she devoted herself to the political interests of
Charles James Fox and his party, and to the advocacy of liberal principles, needs no
telling here. Every one has told the story of her eager canvassing for Fox at the West-
minster election in 1784, against the rival canvassers, the Duchess of Gordon and Lady
Buckinghamshire, on behalf of Viscount Hood, when she bought a butcher’s vote with
a kiss. True or apocryphal, the story has always been accepted.
Array’d in matchless beauty, Devon’s fair
In Fox’s favour takes a zealous part.
But oh ! where’er the pilferer comes—beware !
She supplicates a vote, and steals a heart !
ran one of the many epigrams, and contemporary lampoons and satires, written with the
coarseness characteristic of the period, made rather free with the Duchess’s reputation at
the time of the election. She was then twenty-seven years of age and in the full flush of
her triumph as arbitress of fashion, the most brilliant of the gay throng that danced and
played the nights away at the Ladies’ Club, masqueraded at the Pantheon, and promenaded
at Ranelagh. It was she who was supposed to have set the fashion of the feathered head-
dress which, growing higher and higher, soon became a mark for all the witlings of the
time. Sir Joshua, with an eye to proportion, rather lowered the height of these nodding
plumes. We get side-lights on the character of the beautiful Georgiana. Wraxall speaks
of her as “ The Arbitress of Fashion,” but little Fanny Burney, an accurate and trust-
worthy observer, tells us that she met her only two years after her marriage one Sunday
morning in the Park, walking “ in such an undressed and slatternly manner as in former
of mythological tendency, of which the following are not the least attractive : “ Lais ” ;
“ Hector and Andromache ” ; “ The Parting of Achilles and Briseis ” ; “ Chryses restored
to her Father ” ; “ Nymph of Immortality crowning the bust of Shakespeare ” ;
“ Fortune.” He also executed “ A St. James’s Beauty,” and “ A St. Giles’s Beauty,” after
Benwell ; some charming prints after Singleton. “ Lady Jane Dundas,” after Hoppner, is
good; and “Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire,” and “ Isabella, Duchess of Rutland,”
after Nixon, are two miniatures that no collector could afford to be without.
With certain painters Bartolozzi was particularly happy, but he never could translate
or comprehend Peters, and Morland’s idiosyncrasies suited him hardly better. Some of
his most charming colour-prints are from his own designs; and he also seems to have
excelled in making water-colour “ extracts from the works of contemporary painters
for the guidance of engravers and colour-printers.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE WORK OF FRANCESCO BARTOLOZZI
Plate III. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, eldest daughter of John, first Earl
Spencer, and his Countess Margaret Georgiana, nee Poyntz, was born 5th June 1757 ; was
married, as his first wife, to William, fifth Duke of Devonshire, 5th June 1774 ; and died
30th March 1806.
Next to the Prince and his favourites, the Duchess of Devonshire was the most
prominent figure of eighteenth-century society. How she became known as “ Fox’s
Duchess,” owing to the ardour with which she devoted herself to the political interests of
Charles James Fox and his party, and to the advocacy of liberal principles, needs no
telling here. Every one has told the story of her eager canvassing for Fox at the West-
minster election in 1784, against the rival canvassers, the Duchess of Gordon and Lady
Buckinghamshire, on behalf of Viscount Hood, when she bought a butcher’s vote with
a kiss. True or apocryphal, the story has always been accepted.
Array’d in matchless beauty, Devon’s fair
In Fox’s favour takes a zealous part.
But oh ! where’er the pilferer comes—beware !
She supplicates a vote, and steals a heart !
ran one of the many epigrams, and contemporary lampoons and satires, written with the
coarseness characteristic of the period, made rather free with the Duchess’s reputation at
the time of the election. She was then twenty-seven years of age and in the full flush of
her triumph as arbitress of fashion, the most brilliant of the gay throng that danced and
played the nights away at the Ladies’ Club, masqueraded at the Pantheon, and promenaded
at Ranelagh. It was she who was supposed to have set the fashion of the feathered head-
dress which, growing higher and higher, soon became a mark for all the witlings of the
time. Sir Joshua, with an eye to proportion, rather lowered the height of these nodding
plumes. We get side-lights on the character of the beautiful Georgiana. Wraxall speaks
of her as “ The Arbitress of Fashion,” but little Fanny Burney, an accurate and trust-
worthy observer, tells us that she met her only two years after her marriage one Sunday
morning in the Park, walking “ in such an undressed and slatternly manner as in former