Telling Stories
The idea of pictures being composed in series has been employed by many artists and printmakers, either to illustrate existing narratives or to create new ones. One of the best-known artists to employ this device was Hogarth, whose 'modern moral subjects' such as the Harlot's Progress, Industry and Idleness and Four Stages of Cruelty track the progress (always an ambiguous word in Hogarth's usage) of characters through multiple stages. But while Hogarth was an innovator in many ways, his series also formed part of a well-established tradition of representing narratives in sequence.
Many artists and printmakers were involved in elaborate projects to illustrate literary works, as Hogarth himself had been. Sometimes these were small sets, such as these atmospheric illustrations to Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (to see more images from each series click on the links):
Six scenes from 'Jerusalem Delivered'
[Various engravers, including Edward Rooker and Paul Sandby after John Collins.]
Set of six etchings, complete as issued, each c.460 x 540mm, 18 x 21¼", stitched. With two end papers in disbound contemporary marbled boards, large folio, 575 x 480mm. 22½ x 19". Ex libris bookplates to verso of front and back boards, one a fine 18th century etched crest.
[Ref: 9494] £1,800
or these for Nicolas Boileau's Le Lutrin:
Eight scenes from Le Lutrin
A Paris chez Gaillard Graveur rue St. Jacques au dessus des Jacobins entre un Peruquier et une Lingere. [n.d. c.1770.]
Plate 274 x 343mm. 10¾ x 13½". Trimmed.
Le Lutrin is a famous parody epic by Nicolas Boileau, sometimes said to have furnished Alexander Pope with a model for the Rape of the Lock.
Ex Collection: Norman Blackburn.
[Ref: 28054] £650
...while sometimes they ran to much larger sets, like the engravings after Coypel for Don Quixote (a work Hogarth had also illustrated early in his career):
[Eleven scenes from Don Quixote.]
Cor. Coypel pinx [et al]. J. v.Schley sculp. 1744 [etc.]
[Engraved dates 1742-1745.]
Eleven engravings [of 30?]. Each 220 x 165mm, 8¾ x 10½". Edges folded over.
Engravings by van Schley, Picart and Tanjé after Charles Antoine Coypel. Coypel was commissioned to create designs for a set of tapestries relating the story of Don Quixote in 1720, with a contract for engraving them following in 1721. The engravings were very profitable, and this smaller set was published later, probably to illustrate an edition of Cervantes' picaresque novel.
[Ref: 26859] £350
Within the genre of illustrations to literary works, certain episodes happily presented themselves as perfect framing devices for pictorial representation, notably the 'seven ages of man' speech in As you like it:
The Seven Ages of Man (seven prints)
Painted by R. Smirke, R.A. Engraved by P.W. Tomkins et al...
Pubd. June 4, 1801, by J & J Boydell, at the Shakespeare Gallery, Pall Mall; &No. 90, Cheapside, London.
A set of seven stipples. Plate 457 x 541mm. 18 x 21¼".
[Ref: 25290] £950
The Bible was also a popular source, either in major history paintings such as James Thornhill's scenes from the life of St. Paul, in St. Paul's Cathedral:
[Eight Paintings by Sir James Thornhill in the Cupola of St. Paul’s Cathedral, engraved by Du Bosc, Beauvais, Baron, Vander Gucht, and Simmoneau.] [n.d. c.1719.]
Complete set of eight designs for the decoration of the cupola, St Paul's Cathedral; engravings on laid paper. All approx. 440 x 280mm, 17¼ x 11". Occasional wormholes, mostly filled. All with wide margins.
The dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London is home to the original murals created between 1715 and 1719 by court painter Sir James Thornhill (1676 - 1734).
See BL Maps K.Top.23.36.m.
[Ref: 21364] £880
...or in popular stories such as the parable of the prodigal son, seen here in two sets which take in a variety of popular influences. The first is clearly indebted to Hogarth when the son is shown 'carousing with harlots':
[Four scenes from the Parable of the Prodigal Son]
[After Robert Dighton.].
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, No.69 St Paul's Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs 1792.
Set of four mezzotints. 350 x 250mm. A fine matching set in modern frames.
1. The hall of a country-house.
2. The young man sits on a sofa, his arm round a courtesan.
3. The young man, ragged and melancholy, sits outside a pigsty holding some of the pea-pods from a heap, at which two pigs are guzzling.
4. The young man, dressed as in plate 3, advances towards his father who stands on the serpentine drive leading to his house.
BM:8227.8228.8229.8230
[Ref: 7049] £1,500
while this set by Rugendas combines the influences of French rococo (in the carousing scenes) with distortions of the northern European rural tradition:
[Set of six scenes from the Parable of the Prodigal Son]
J.L. Rugendas & G.P. Rugendas
Coloured mezzotints, outsides of frames 32 x 43cm.
£1150
Other sources for sets of prints included major historical events, such as the death of Mary, Queen of Scots:
[The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots.]
I.F.Rigault R.A. Pinx.t. W.N.Gardiner Sculp.
Pub. as the Act directs May 1st, 1792 by T.Monzani. No. 6 Coventry Street, Hay Market.
Set of six stipples, each 205 x 255mm. Laid on album paper, stitched.
Six sympathetic scenes from the death and funeral of Mary.
[Ref: 7093] £380
or key military and naval battle, which could be fitted into a simple beginning-middle-end structure as here:
[Set of four prints of Schomberg's action off Tamatave, May 20 1811]
[after Thomas Whitcombe, n.d. c. 1811]
Set of four coloured aquatints in frames, very scarce; outside of frames each approx 725 x 995mm (28½ x 39¼"). Unexamined out of frames. A wonderful matching set of these extremely rare images.
[Ref: 28069] £6,500
[4 prints of the Java and Constitution.]
Drawn & Etched by N. Pocock, from a Sketch by Lieut. Buchanan. Engraved by R. & D. Havell. Proof.
Jan.y 1.1814, Publish'd by Boydell & Co
Set of four proof aquatints on Whatman paper. 430 x 520mm, 17 x 20½".
A battle fought off the Brazilian coast, during the War of 1812 between the US & Great Britain.
[Ref: 23150] £4,900
A particular favourite set of ours at the moment is The Road to Ruin, after paintings by William Powell Frith in which the Hogarthian model modern moral narrative is consciously updated for the Victorian age. 'The pivotal work in The Road to Ruin (number 3 of 5) shows the bailiffs arriving; the arrogance of the gambler, the main protagonist, incredulous about what is happening; his alarmed wife raising herself from her chair; one child aware of something; and the other blissfully unaware. Most telling is the scene in a back room, which we can just glimpse into, where two servants discuss the arrival of the bailiffs and consider their next position' (Mark Bills, 'Dickens and the Painting of Modern Life' in Dickens and the Artists):
The Road to Ruin. College. [&] Ascot. [&] Struggles. [&] Arrest. [&] The End.
W.P. Frith R.A. del. L. Flemeng sc. Printed by McQueen.
Published by the Art Union of London, 112, Strand, 1878. Art-Union of London 1882.
Set of five mixed-method engravings. 450 x 530mm, 17¾ x 20¾". 'Arrest' with repaired cracks.
[Ref: 27887] £680
Many artists and printmakers were involved in elaborate projects to illustrate literary works, as Hogarth himself had been. Sometimes these were small sets, such as these atmospheric illustrations to Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (to see more images from each series click on the links):
[Various engravers, including Edward Rooker and Paul Sandby after John Collins.]
Set of six etchings, complete as issued, each c.460 x 540mm, 18 x 21¼", stitched. With two end papers in disbound contemporary marbled boards, large folio, 575 x 480mm. 22½ x 19". Ex libris bookplates to verso of front and back boards, one a fine 18th century etched crest.
[Ref: 9494] £1,800
or these for Nicolas Boileau's Le Lutrin:
A Paris chez Gaillard Graveur rue St. Jacques au dessus des Jacobins entre un Peruquier et une Lingere. [n.d. c.1770.]
Plate 274 x 343mm. 10¾ x 13½". Trimmed.
Le Lutrin is a famous parody epic by Nicolas Boileau, sometimes said to have furnished Alexander Pope with a model for the Rape of the Lock.
Ex Collection: Norman Blackburn.
[Ref: 28054] £650
...while sometimes they ran to much larger sets, like the engravings after Coypel for Don Quixote (a work Hogarth had also illustrated early in his career):
Cor. Coypel pinx [et al]. J. v.Schley sculp. 1744 [etc.]
[Engraved dates 1742-1745.]
Eleven engravings [of 30?]. Each 220 x 165mm, 8¾ x 10½". Edges folded over.
Engravings by van Schley, Picart and Tanjé after Charles Antoine Coypel. Coypel was commissioned to create designs for a set of tapestries relating the story of Don Quixote in 1720, with a contract for engraving them following in 1721. The engravings were very profitable, and this smaller set was published later, probably to illustrate an edition of Cervantes' picaresque novel.
[Ref: 26859] £350
Within the genre of illustrations to literary works, certain episodes happily presented themselves as perfect framing devices for pictorial representation, notably the 'seven ages of man' speech in As you like it:
Painted by R. Smirke, R.A. Engraved by P.W. Tomkins et al...
Pubd. June 4, 1801, by J & J Boydell, at the Shakespeare Gallery, Pall Mall; &No. 90, Cheapside, London.
A set of seven stipples. Plate 457 x 541mm. 18 x 21¼".
[Ref: 25290] £950
The Bible was also a popular source, either in major history paintings such as James Thornhill's scenes from the life of St. Paul, in St. Paul's Cathedral:
Complete set of eight designs for the decoration of the cupola, St Paul's Cathedral; engravings on laid paper. All approx. 440 x 280mm, 17¼ x 11". Occasional wormholes, mostly filled. All with wide margins.
The dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London is home to the original murals created between 1715 and 1719 by court painter Sir James Thornhill (1676 - 1734).
See BL Maps K.Top.23.36.m.
[Ref: 21364] £880
...or in popular stories such as the parable of the prodigal son, seen here in two sets which take in a variety of popular influences. The first is clearly indebted to Hogarth when the son is shown 'carousing with harlots':
[After Robert Dighton.].
Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, No.69 St Paul's Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs 1792.
Set of four mezzotints. 350 x 250mm. A fine matching set in modern frames.
1. The hall of a country-house.
2. The young man sits on a sofa, his arm round a courtesan.
3. The young man, ragged and melancholy, sits outside a pigsty holding some of the pea-pods from a heap, at which two pigs are guzzling.
4. The young man, dressed as in plate 3, advances towards his father who stands on the serpentine drive leading to his house.
BM:8227.8228.8229.8230
[Ref: 7049] £1,500
while this set by Rugendas combines the influences of French rococo (in the carousing scenes) with distortions of the northern European rural tradition:
J.L. Rugendas & G.P. Rugendas
Coloured mezzotints, outsides of frames 32 x 43cm.
£1150
Other sources for sets of prints included major historical events, such as the death of Mary, Queen of Scots:
I.F.Rigault R.A. Pinx.t. W.N.Gardiner Sculp.
Pub. as the Act directs May 1st, 1792 by T.Monzani. No. 6 Coventry Street, Hay Market.
Set of six stipples, each 205 x 255mm. Laid on album paper, stitched.
Six sympathetic scenes from the death and funeral of Mary.
[Ref: 7093] £380
or key military and naval battle, which could be fitted into a simple beginning-middle-end structure as here:
[after Thomas Whitcombe, n.d. c. 1811]
Set of four coloured aquatints in frames, very scarce; outside of frames each approx 725 x 995mm (28½ x 39¼"). Unexamined out of frames. A wonderful matching set of these extremely rare images.
[Ref: 28069] £6,500
Drawn & Etched by N. Pocock, from a Sketch by Lieut. Buchanan. Engraved by R. & D. Havell. Proof.
Jan.y 1.1814, Publish'd by Boydell & Co
Set of four proof aquatints on Whatman paper. 430 x 520mm, 17 x 20½".
A battle fought off the Brazilian coast, during the War of 1812 between the US & Great Britain.
[Ref: 23150] £4,900
A particular favourite set of ours at the moment is The Road to Ruin, after paintings by William Powell Frith in which the Hogarthian model modern moral narrative is consciously updated for the Victorian age. 'The pivotal work in The Road to Ruin (number 3 of 5) shows the bailiffs arriving; the arrogance of the gambler, the main protagonist, incredulous about what is happening; his alarmed wife raising herself from her chair; one child aware of something; and the other blissfully unaware. Most telling is the scene in a back room, which we can just glimpse into, where two servants discuss the arrival of the bailiffs and consider their next position' (Mark Bills, 'Dickens and the Painting of Modern Life' in Dickens and the Artists):
W.P. Frith R.A. del. L. Flemeng sc. Printed by McQueen.
Published by the Art Union of London, 112, Strand, 1878. Art-Union of London 1882.
Set of five mixed-method engravings. 450 x 530mm, 17¾ x 20¾". 'Arrest' with repaired cracks.
[Ref: 27887] £680
