.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This picture shows five gentlemen, seated around a round table in front of an open cabinet, who would appear to be examining and discussing perhaps coins or gems. The early title of the picture 'Debates on Palmistry' was invented after Hogarth's death, when the picture was in Samuel Ireland's collection, by Nichols in his Biographical Anecdotes ... (op.cit., 1792). Nichols put forward the 'mere supposition' that the scene could represent 'Physicians and Surgeons of a Hospital, who are debating the most commodious method of receiving a fee, inattentive of the complaints of a lame female who solicits assistance' and went on to suggest that the sketch was possibly 'a repented effort of hasty spleen against the officers of St. Bartholomew's, who might not have treated some recommendation of a patient from our artist all the respect and attention to which he thought it was entitled' (op.cit.). Elizabeth Einberg has suggested that this interpretation may have been prompted by the fact that the room and cupboard recall the quack doctor's consulting room in scene three of Marriage a© La Mode (National Gallery, London), as seen reversed in the engraving.
Elizabeth Einberg has suggested, however, that the scene seems more likely to represent a group of connoisseurs in a cabinet of curiosites, akin to those of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) and Dr. Richard Mead (1673-1754). The inclusion of the suit of armour, to the left of the composition, would certainly seem to fit in with such an interpretation and it has been suggested that the owl, to the right of the composition, bears a strong resemblance to the emblem on the reverse of antique Athenian coins.
The picture is particularly impressive for its fluidity. The artist seems to have begun it with the composition clearly in mind for remarkably few compositional changes are apparent.
It is first recorded in the collection of the engraver, dealer and collector Samuel Ireland (d. 1800). Ireland had engraved many of Hogarth's works and in 1794 published a Graphic illustrations of Hogarth, from Pictures, Drawings and Scarce Prints in the Authors possession in which some of the plates were engraved by himself. He was also a keen collector of books, pictures and curios and the subject matter of the present picture must therefore have appealed to him. The picture was then in the collection of the great connoisseur, collector and arbiter of taste, Sir George Beaumont, 7th Bt. (1753-1827). A friend and patron of Constable, it was the promise of Beaumont's notable collection of pictures which led to the foundation of the National Gallery.
We are grateful to Elizabeth Einberg for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Elizabeth Einberg has suggested, however, that the scene seems more likely to represent a group of connoisseurs in a cabinet of curiosites, akin to those of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) and Dr. Richard Mead (1673-1754). The inclusion of the suit of armour, to the left of the composition, would certainly seem to fit in with such an interpretation and it has been suggested that the owl, to the right of the composition, bears a strong resemblance to the emblem on the reverse of antique Athenian coins.
The picture is particularly impressive for its fluidity. The artist seems to have begun it with the composition clearly in mind for remarkably few compositional changes are apparent.
It is first recorded in the collection of the engraver, dealer and collector Samuel Ireland (d. 1800). Ireland had engraved many of Hogarth's works and in 1794 published a Graphic illustrations of Hogarth, from Pictures, Drawings and Scarce Prints in the Authors possession in which some of the plates were engraved by himself. He was also a keen collector of books, pictures and curios and the subject matter of the present picture must therefore have appealed to him. The picture was then in the collection of the great connoisseur, collector and arbiter of taste, Sir George Beaumont, 7th Bt. (1753-1827). A friend and patron of Constable, it was the promise of Beaumont's notable collection of pictures which led to the foundation of the National Gallery.
We are grateful to Elizabeth Einberg for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.