Print Specifics:
- Type of print: Steel engraving - Original antique print
- Year of printing: not indicated in the print - actual 1857
- Original Artist: Bouvy
- Publisher: George Virtue, London
- Condition: 1 (1. Excellent - 2. Very good - 3. Good - 4. Fair)
- Dimensions: 9 x 12 inches, including blank margins (borders) around the image.
- Paper weight: 1-2 (1. Thick - 2. Heavier - 3. Medium heavy - 4. Slightly heavier - 5. Thin)
- Reverse side: Blank
Notes:
- Green color around the print in the photo is a contrasting background on which the print was photographed.
- 1 inch = 2,54 cm.
Narrative:
- We
know not how or when the " Prison Group" came into the Royal
Collection: it is, however, signed and dated " Anvers, 1846," so that
it must have been painted when M. Bouvy was residing in that city. The
scene would lead one to infer that it illustrated some fact of history
or incident in the story of the novelist, but it is, in truth, neither
the one nor the other: the artist's intention was to personate the
different vices and crimes that consign evil-doers to the custody of
the law. But it is evident that he has gone back two or three centuries
for his characters, and even for the stronghold in which the criminals
are confined: it looks exceedingly like the interior of a Spanish jail,
or rather like the vault of a church or castle converted into a prison,
and the occupants generally appear to be of that nation.
It is not easy to specify by his particular appearance, the precise
crime of which each individual has been guilty; indeed, there arc two
or three faces that certainly have not crime, or at least what men
usually regard as crime, written on their foreheads: the female, for
example, shows no mark of vice or criminality, and though she has
seated herself on the straw that covers the floor of the cell, and
seems to take an interest in the gambling quarrel of her companions,
she appears in no degree a more worthless character than that of a
wandering minstrel, whose only offence, it may be assumed, is vagrancy.
- The nearest figure is unquestionably a desperado; he
is a man against whom prison-bars arc not proof: a heavy shot is
attached to his ankle for his safe custody. It is not always true the
saying, "There is honour among thieves;" that stout, well-dressed
fellow, with feathered hat and slashed doublet, whose offence, we
venture to state, is that he and sobriety parted company overnight at
the tavern, has not only been cheated out of his money with the
dice-box, but his right-band neighbour has a hand in his pocket to
relieve him of the money of which cheating has not yet deprived him.
The man in a military garb is an unmistakable ruffian—far more of a
brigand than a soldier; thieving has been a life-long trade with him:
even now he has made free with the stakes, and bids defiance to those
he has robbed.
- The young fellow standing under the doorway belongs
to a class far above the others; what he has done to bring himself
within the meshes of the law we can scarcely imagine.
In the opposite corner of the picture is an aged monk, whose term of
imprisonment is not of very recent date, else his beard would not have
grown to the length it has: it is only charitable to assume that this
venerable ecclesiastic has, by the faithful discharge of the duties of
his office, given offence to those who have rewarded his fidelity with
the felon's lot. If the artist intended one of his characters for a
murderer, it can be no other than the figure standing near.the monk; he
looks the impersonation of every crime enumerated in the Decalogue—the
incarnation of the spirit of evil.
It is a clever picture, viewed either as a whole or in its individual
parts: the tone of colour is low, though of good quality and in
excellent keeping: the manipulation is everywhere most careful.
The picture is at Osborne.
Martin2001 Satisfaction Guaranteed Policy!
-
Any print purchased from me may be returned for any (or no) reason for a full refund including all postage.
-
eBay seller since 1998.
- Five-star service.
|
