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Lot Essay
Hogarth painted his picture after a 1748 visit to France, where peace had just been declared, when he was jailed for sketching the Gate of Calais. He includes himself sketching at left of the scene. Horace Walpole wrote of the incident in a letter: "Hogarth has run a great risk since the peace; he went to France, and was so imprudent as to be taking a sketch of the drawbridge at Calais. He was seized and carried to the Governor where he was forced to prove his vocation by producing several cariacatures of the French; particularly a scene of the shore with an immense piece of beef landing for the Lion d'Argent, the English inn at Calais, and several hungry friars following it. They were much diverted with his drawings and dismissed him." He was remanded to the custody of the Lion d'Argent's landlord and his wife, Mme. Grandsire. The painting, buying into the rampant anti-Gallic sentiment of the time, was a popular success and an engraving was published in March 1749. The Gate itself had been built by the English. Hogarth wrote of it, "There is a fair appearance still of the arms of England upon it". It was demolished in 1895. For a complete discussion see The Age of Hogarth, Tate Gallery Collections: Volume II, pp.127-130.
A pair of punchbowls decorated with this subject were ordered by Thomas Rumbold of the British East India Company, substituting his arms for those of France and England. One is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum and another sold Sotheby's New York, from the collection of Mrs. Rafi Y. Mottahedeh, lot 436, 27 January,1988. A bowl with the arms as on the painting and on this vase was sold Sotheby's London, 6 November 1973, lot 225. No other pieces with the subject are known.
The painting itself was sold to Lord Charlemont by 1781, and then by him at Christie's 2 May 1874, lot 58. It was sold again at Christie's, 2 May 1891, lot 107, to Agnew's for the Duke of Westminster, who gave it to the National Gallery in 1895, from which it was transferred to the Tate Gallery in 1951 where it can be seen today
A pair of punchbowls decorated with this subject were ordered by Thomas Rumbold of the British East India Company, substituting his arms for those of France and England. One is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum and another sold Sotheby's New York, from the collection of Mrs. Rafi Y. Mottahedeh, lot 436, 27 January,1988. A bowl with the arms as on the painting and on this vase was sold Sotheby's London, 6 November 1973, lot 225. No other pieces with the subject are known.
The painting itself was sold to Lord Charlemont by 1781, and then by him at Christie's 2 May 1874, lot 58. It was sold again at Christie's, 2 May 1891, lot 107, to Agnew's for the Duke of Westminster, who gave it to the National Gallery in 1895, from which it was transferred to the Tate Gallery in 1951 where it can be seen today