Lot Essay
This drawing is sold with a smaller sheet inscribed by a later hand, which gives the provenance details. The provenance given above also derives from Oppé and the earlier literature. Paulson, who does not mention the drawing, suggests in the latest edition of his Graphic Works, 1988 that Hogarth's engraving was executed shortly after the large Hudibras engravings of 1725-6 as a sample for a bigger series; he had already executed a series of smaller uprights in about 1726 for a projected Spanish edition of Cervantes' Don Quixote but that commission eventually went to John Vanderbank (Paulson, 1988, pp. 65-6, nos. 94-9; he mentions only a later drawing of this composition, for Samuel Ireland's Graphic Illustrations). Antal points out, loc.cit., that this drawing was probably influenced by Charles Coypel's tapestry design of 1719 (T. Lefrançois, Charles Coypel, Peintre du roi (1694-1752), Paris, 1994, pp. 173-5, no. P.32, illustrated), which had been engraved by N.-D. de Beauvais, circa 1723-4. Coypel had also illustrated an edition of Don Quixote, omitting this episode, and it is possible that Hogarth hoped that his composition would be used for an English edition (see Paulson, 1988, loc.cit.).
John Ireland writes, loc.cit.: 'The original print was designed and engraved at a very early period of Hogarth's life... In the drawing, Sancho was originally portrayed with a full face; but Hogarth judiciously thinking a profile would be preferable fixed a bit of paper over his first thought, and altered it to the state in which it is here engraved'. There are other differences between the drawing and the engraving, which is in reverse: certain figures have been added or suppressed, the woman on the left of the drawing has been given a long stick, and the plate bearing a joint of meat on the left is absent.
Samuel Ireland quotes, loc.cit., from Smollett's translation of Cervantes, Part II, chapter 47. The Duke and Duchess have, as a joke, appointed Don Quixote's servant Sancho Panza 'Governor of Barataria', and at a magnificent feast the governor's physician Pedro Rezzio prevents him from eating all the delicious food, ostensibly out of concern for his health. The text below Hogarth's engraving summarizes the story: 'SANCHO at the Magnificent Feast Prepar'd for him at his government of Barataria, is Starved in the midst of Plenty, Pedro Rezzio his Phisician [sic], out of great Care for his health ordering every Dish from the Table before the Governor Tasts [sic] it'. Hogarth's widow told the etcher Livesey, probably in the 1780s, that Hogarth painted his own portrait in the person of Sancho (Paulson, 1971, op.cit., p. 165).
John Ireland writes, loc.cit.: 'The original print was designed and engraved at a very early period of Hogarth's life... In the drawing, Sancho was originally portrayed with a full face; but Hogarth judiciously thinking a profile would be preferable fixed a bit of paper over his first thought, and altered it to the state in which it is here engraved'. There are other differences between the drawing and the engraving, which is in reverse: certain figures have been added or suppressed, the woman on the left of the drawing has been given a long stick, and the plate bearing a joint of meat on the left is absent.
Samuel Ireland quotes, loc.cit., from Smollett's translation of Cervantes, Part II, chapter 47. The Duke and Duchess have, as a joke, appointed Don Quixote's servant Sancho Panza 'Governor of Barataria', and at a magnificent feast the governor's physician Pedro Rezzio prevents him from eating all the delicious food, ostensibly out of concern for his health. The text below Hogarth's engraving summarizes the story: 'SANCHO at the Magnificent Feast Prepar'd for him at his government of Barataria, is Starved in the midst of Plenty, Pedro Rezzio his Phisician [sic], out of great Care for his health ordering every Dish from the Table before the Governor Tasts [sic] it'. Hogarth's widow told the etcher Livesey, probably in the 1780s, that Hogarth painted his own portrait in the person of Sancho (Paulson, 1971, op.cit., p. 165).