Beauty and the Beast

Details

THOMAS ROWLANDSON (1756-1827)
Beauty and the Beast
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour on paper
10 ¾ x 8 in. (27.3 x 20.3 cm.)

Provenance

Feliks Topolski R.A. (1907-1989) and by descent.
with Chris Beetles, London, from whom acquired by the late Barry Humphries in February 2018.

Exhibited

London, Chris Beetles Limited, The Age of Thomas Rowlandson, October-November 2012, no. 51, illustrated.
London, Chris Beetles Limited, The Illustrators: The British Art of Illustration, 1800-2014, November 2014 - January 2015, p. 13, no. 5, illustrated.
London, Chris Beetles Limited, Drawn to the Nineteenth Century, February 2016, unnumbered.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Benedict Winter Associate Director, Specialist

Lot Essay

The caricature has traditionally been considered a depiction of the diplomat Sir William Hamilton and his wife, Emma, who is best remembered as the mistress of Lord Nelson. However, the faces are dissimilar to those of other portraits of these figures, including another work by the artist, Lady Hamilton at home.

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