The political beggar,

John Boyne

The political beggar,

London, H. McPhail 5 April 1784

Etching

Old hand colouring

350 x 250 mm

£180

Fox, a ragged beggar, is barked at by two dogs (left). Beneath the title is engraved, ‘I am grown so Unfashionable that Dogs bark at me as I halt by them’. He stands full-face, gazing disconsolately to the left. He wears a ragged coat fastened by one button, but exposing his hairy chest. His hands are plunged into the bottomless pockets of his tattered breeches, his stockings hang round his ankles; he has only one shoe, unfastened, through which his toes protrude. A line of trees beside a path leading to a gate suggests St. James’s Park