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A New Dunciad

Maker

(artist)
1725-1809

Title

A New Dunciad

Date of Production

1753

Medium

printed on chine collé

Dimensions

Height: 19.8 cm
Width: 23.4 cm

Accession Number

G.1990.WL.7002

Mode of Acquisition

Witt Library, transfer, 1990

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

visual arts

Label Text

Sandby is renowned as a topographical watercolourist and pioneer of aquatint printmaking. Less known are his satirical prints, for which he used the sketchier medium of etching. A series directed against Hogarth targets the artist’s pretentions as a theorist, as expressed in his Analysis of Beauty (1753). He is depicted here as an inanely smiling fool. A dunce’s cap alludes to Hogarth’s concept of the ‘Line of Beauty’ — the serpentine line, echoed on the surface of the palette, which he argued was a universal principle of beauty in art and nature.

Provenance

Information not yet known or updated

Exhibition History

Purpose and Process: British and French Printmaking 1600 - 1900, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/05/2014-20/06/2014

Literature

Quilley, Geoff, 'The Analysis of Deceit: Sandby's Satires against Hogarth' in Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain, 2009
pp. 39-40
Fig. p. fig. 14

Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 11 vols
Fig. p. no. 3241

Inscriptions

Inscription: A New DUNCIAD done with a view of (...)ey fluctuating IDEAS of TASTE / Without Preface / or Introduction / (...)

Label: DEPARTMENT OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS, / THE BRITISH MUSEUM, / LONDON, W.C.1. / 28 June / 1938 / Dear Dorothy, / I find that we have / this after all, but entered, in / the particular manner of F. G. / Stevens, under the wrong year. / It is Satires No. 3241 on / Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty. / 1) is Hogarth, 2) a Harlequin - / perhaps intended for Rich, - 3) / unknown. Under the inscription / on the cloth held by the satyr / is a sketch of Hogarth knocked / down by Paul Sandby, whose / 'Burlesquer burlesqued' was / one of the principal satires / against The Analysis of Beauty / We have no idea who the artist / was, but perhaps you can / find a place for it? / Yours ever / Elizabeth Senior //

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