(Paul before Felix)

William Hogarth

(Paul before Felix)

London, J. & J. Boydell ca 1806

Copper engraving

425 x 525mm

£180

Paulson 192  IV/V

From the collection of George Morant, (1770 – 1846) of 95 Wimpole St, London. A very fine set on mostly uncut sheets kept loose in a folio. Carefully printed and in very good condition.

Morant was a collector and Founder of a business of paper hangers, carvers, gilders and picture frame makers.

The company had offices at 88 Old Bond St,  from 1814, and was appointed as ‘house decorator, carver, gilder & picture-frame-maker to His Majesty’. From 1832 he was appointed again by Her majesty Queen Victoria

The selection of the subject of St Paul’s plea before Felix was based primarily on its appropriateness to the Inns of Court, and secondarily on the opportunity it provided to a work directly comparable to Raphael’s St Paul Cartoons. An extension beyond the last episode of Raphael’s series the story begins when Paul is mobbed by the Jews for ignoring their laws and saved by the Roman soldiers who, learning that his is a Roman citizen, sent him to Caesarea to be judged by the govenor Felix.