Some of my www.researchgate.net Essays and Links on 18C Art History

September 2025 - For those visitors to this website who are interested to learn more about Art History, a while ago I loaded some PDF essays on the subject into my research account at www.researchgate.net 

1. Collecting and Researching Miniature Portraits, see this link;

(PDF) Collecting and Researching Miniature Portraits

2 Miniature Portraits of the 19th Century - What did it cost to paint them?

(PDF) Miniature Portraits of the 19th Century - Paint

3. My account at www.researchgate.net also includes four of my essays analysing well-known prints by the famous 18C artist William Hogarth; 

These essays demonstrate that previous researchers, universally and completely, misunderstood the Hogarth prints. Earlier researchers all assume each Hogarth print had only a single, simple, message! - being pictorial sermons, for the instruction of the uneducated and illiterate 18C masses of London!

However, Hogarth was more, being a brilliant, but previously unacknowledged, satiric artist. These four essays show in illustrated detail, that Hogarth's true intent was to convey subtle and important messages on contemporary events, via Satire, for the amusement and edification of his intelligent and educated 18C viewers; and being done in parallel with simple Sermons, for the uneducated and illiterate masses.. 

A Satire not a Sermon, The Enraged Musician and the Cibbers ...

(PDF) A Satire, not a Sermon: Marriage A-la-Mode and ...

A Satire, not a Sermon: Four Stages of Cruelty and Murder

(PDF) A Satire, not a Sermon: The Gate of Calais and the Young ...

Please feel free to share these essays with anyone interested in Art History. It would be interesting to know whether visitors here agree that the Hogarth prints were intended by him as cryptic satires.

4. A 18C London print-maker who competed in 1738-45 with William Hogarth was George Bickham. A partial collection of George Bickham prints is accumulated at   www.tobiassmollett.blogspot.co.nz - as a post titled;  

Smollett and Prints by George Bickham - 1738-45 © 

Those prints include a section on the rebus print example below which, to date, I have tried, but have been unable to fully interpret.

[The third version reverts to Mr Geo Bickham as the engraver and is reportedly imprinted at the bottom, "Sold at [the] Blackmoors Head, Strand, Sept. 30 1744,". It seems George Bickham decided to keep the Political Creed but to "reclaim" the print by re-engraving his name at the top right and adding a new date of 1744 at the bottom right when he did so.

In trying to understand the three versions, the most likely scenario is that the September, 1740 version was the original. Then, someone decided to add the Political Creed of Capt. Hercules Vinegar and alter the name of the engraver to a fictitious name, i.e. Geo Wickham. This second "fake" version was then dated July, 1740, that is previous to the date of the original, to match the letter at the top left and give the print an extra air of authenticity. A 1740 issue date makes most sense, with the Political Creed originally written before 1742, as Sir Robert Walpole left office on 6 February 1742, then becoming the Earl of Orford. In addition, by September 1744, Fielding had sold his interest and was four years removed from The Champion.

The consideration is then, who issued the first version, and who would have altered the original to include the Political Creed and date it July, 1740. While there is no definite proof, in mid 1740, Smollett was the only satirist involved in a major war with Fielding. He had possibly also arranged the first version, but he does seem the most likely perpetrator for the fake Geo Wickham version, as that is the sort of publishing  tactic he used, and the July 1740 date matches the publication date of The Tryal of Colley Cibber. In addition, the erasure of the names of the jousters, allows them to represent Smollett and Fielding jousting, as a private joke to Fielding. If that interpretation is correct, such a diversion by Smollett into satirical cartoons, considered by Hogarth as his own territory, then helps explain why Hogarth retaliated by mocking Smollett in The Enraged Musician and Marriage A-la-Mode.  

Parts of The Creed requires more analysis to be fully deciphered, but it is as seen in this close-up: 

"I believe in King [George] ye 2nd, ye [grate]est [cap]tain & ye [Yl?]est Mon[ark] [bee]tween [Mountains] & [Sea], and in Sir Robt'[wall][pole] his only [Lord?] our [?], who was [be]gotten by [?] ye At[?]ney, born of Mrs [Wall] [pole] of Hough[ton], [axe]cused of corrupt[eye]on ex[pound]ed & im[prison]'d he went down into Nor[folk?] ye [3] [yearss], he came up again, he [de(ar)]sended into ye As[min]tra[eye]on & [sit]eth at ye [side] of ye Treas[yew]ry, from thence he shall pay [?] those who Vote [?] they are [?]-manded. [eye] [bee][leaf] in [?]'s [tree]aties ye Sanc-eye]ty of ye [bishop]'s, ye Inde[pen]-dancy of ye [army?], ye Integr[eye]ty of ye [comb]mons, a Res[eye]tu-[eye?]on from the [?] & a [?] of ye Pub[leek] Debts. A-[men]. 

5. Another print-maker of the mid 18C competed with Hogarth, under the name Samuel Lyne, in 1741-56. A collection of many of his prints has been accumulated and is discussed at www.tobiassmollett.blogspot.co.nz see the post there titled; 

 Smollett and Prints by Samuel Lyne - 1741-56 © 

Samuel Lyne

When this branch commenced the line of research was based on a hunch Tobias Smollett had designed and published satiric prints over the name of S Lyne. What was unclear is whether Samuel Lyne was a person, or what we would now call a brand? Was Lyne a satirical clue to "lying" about his identity? That has become apparent as a valid view, with distinct and valuable shapes emerging. [I would much welcome contact from anybody who has researched Samuel Lyne and is able to prove, or disprove, whether he actually existed in 1741.

In the period c.1741-3 there were published a number of prints inscribed as sold by Samuel Lyne at the Globe. The British Museum records 8 prints by Samuel Lyne from 1690-1747: 1690, 1713, 1733, 1741 (2), 1742, 1743, 1747, and one undated, which is a suspiciously long time span. The British Museum dates two versions of The High German Doctor as sold by Lyne, one dated 1690 and one 1743. And Yale dates The Quack-Doctor Outwitted by Lyne as c.1710. As the research below has progressed, the opinion forming is that there may have been an error in dating the Lyne prints as 1690 and 1710; that is, if they were dated by the clothing and the large wig. The Lyne versions may be later reissues as, from the discussion below about The Quack Doctor it is seen the Lyne The Quack-Doctor Outwitted is believed to be a commentary on Henry Fielding's The Mock Doctor, The Mock Doctor first performed in 1732, but based upon  Molière's Le Médecin malgré lui, of 1666, which explains the seventeenth century clothing and wig. There are references to a book, A New Booke of Merry Riddles. London, 1665 by Alexander Nicol, and apparently sold by S Lyne. It is unsighted, but is probably a c.1740 reprint, perhaps with a Lyne imprint, rather than an indication that Lyne was a seller of books in 1665.

This began to sound like a case of "where there is smoke there is fire". The suspicion was that, as one of his satirical publishing ruses, Smollett set up or was involved with, a print shop in 1741 over the name Samuel Lyne with, or without, an employee named Samuel Lyne.  

 6. Another group of prints, this time by by Samuel Boyce, is discussed at,www.tobiassmollett.blogspot.co.nz see;

Smollett and Samuel Boyce - The Lost Works of Tobias ...

7. A collection of satiric prints associated with Alexander Pope is also displayed and discussed at www.tobiassmollett.blogspot.co.nz under a post titled; 

Smollett & Pope - III - Anti-Pope prints and Tom-Tit - 1734-45 ©

Introduction

As demonstrated below there were various anti-Alexander Pope prints initiated by Tobias Smollett. One earlier print composed by William Hogarth, illustrates the use of a pictorial image as a pun. The print was published c.1736, is titled The Distrest Poet, and usually regarded as depicting Alexander Pope, but more important is the title. During the 18C the loss of one's wig was regarded in common usage as a sign of the loss of one's reason, or of one's wits, i.e. also the loss of a poet's wit. In The Distrest Poet the poet's wig is loose and vulnerable to risk of displacement as he scratches his head. The point of this is a pun on distressing, i.e. "distressing" as a worry about a loss of poetic inspiration, and "dis-tressing", as the removal of one's wig, i.e. losing one's hair tresses. This simile, that the loss of one's wig implies the loss of one's reason or wit[s], is represented in several of the prints composed by Smollett as part of his attacks on Alexander Pope.     

The Distrest Poet, as a pun on a Distressed Poet; punning Pope losing his wig, and losing his wit.

 

 

8. Although not strictly art history, any visitors with an interest in "literary archaeology", and seeking to make their own new 18C literary research discoveries, are welcome to draw on the research in this detailed PDF essay which discusses the content of Grubstreet Journal of 1730, in order  to determine the identity of the previously unidentified and anonymous contributor who wrote much of the Grubstreet Journal. The essay is freely available at www.researchgate.net.  

(PDF) A Black Hole in 18C Literary History