Children Spouting Tragedy
£380.00
Charles Howard Hodges after Richard Morton Paye Children Spouting Tragedy London, J. R. Smith Oct. 27th 1785 & August 29th 1786 Stipple engraving, with traces of mezzotint 455x550mm Trimmed to platemark, misc neat marginal repairs, slight abrasion in title area.
A very interesting, rare, stipple engravings, so finely executed as to give the impression of being a mezzotint. A scene outside the portico of a palladian country mansion with a group of five children acting out one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. The eldest girl declaims dramatically, her younger sister weeps, a small boy lies apparently dead on the steps, while a small girl watches enthralled on the right. . The artist Richard Morton Paye (d. 1821), specialised in painting children, both as single portaits and in groups. Although he died in poverty and neglect, his work is now especially esteemed for his depictions of childhood during the late eighteenth century.
