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Author Archives: mercedes-c
A print by Cosway
Douce was a friend and executor of the painter Richard Cosway (1742-1821). Many works by him and by his wife Maria can be found among Douce’s prints and drawings -this nymph carrying Cupid on her shoulders is a good example: … Continue reading
Douce’s dream
In a previous post, I referred to Douce’s accounts of his dreams in his Book of Coincidences. In an undated entry probably written in 1817, Douce explained: I had a strange dream about eating a cross-bow as a broiled fish. … Continue reading
Amateur drawings
Among Douce’s drawings in the Ashmolean there are many by amateurs like Francis Cohen (1788-1861). In 1823, Cohen changed his name to Palgrave and married one of Dawson Turner’s daughters, Elizabeth. Douce and Cohen became close friends and they met … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquaries, Collections and Collectors, Drawings, Engravings, Networks, Physicians, Prints, Travel
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Interior design
The drawing below was made by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, an artist renown, among many other things, for getting his props right: Like other history painters working in the early decades of the nineteenth century, Ingres would have appreciated Douce’s … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquaries, Drawings, Everyday life, Fashion, Furniture, Networks, Paintings, Romanticism
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Grinding fools
Many of Douce’s prints of fools are emblems from Dutch and German books, like the etching below: The scene is set in a watermill, where an elegantly dressed man is startled at the sight of batches of little fools being … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Emblems, Fools, Prints, Satirical prints, Uncategorized
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We are five
I have just started cataloguing Douce’s prints of fools -the engraving below belongs to the popular type depicting a group of foolish figures that numbers one fewer than the title, so that the viewer makes up the total: On the … Continue reading
The Juggernaut Debt
In 1832, The Ballot published a series of “Sketches in Church and State”. The proofs for the anonymous wood-engravings can be found among the satirical prints that the British Museum purchased from the estate of Douce’s friend Edward Hawkins. As … Continue reading
Posted in Collections and Collectors, Networks, Prints, Religion, Satirical prints, Tax, Uncategorized, Wood-engravings
Tagged Newspapers, Radicals
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At Rochester Cathedral
Douce counted among his friends not only Thomas Stothard (1755-1834), but also two of his sons, Charles Alfred and Robert. Many works by the former, who was historical draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries, are kept with Douce’s topographical prints. … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquaries, Drawings, Networks, Prints, Religion, Sculpture
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Bonasone in red
Over fifty prints by Giulio Bonasone from Douce’s collection were transferred to the Ashmolean in 1863. At the time, they were integrated in the main sequence and they can now be found under the printmaker’s name. The print below, however, … Continue reading
A peep at the balloon
On Saturday, 7 July 1810, the Oxford-born chemist James Sadler (1753-1828) took part in the celebrations of the installation of the new Chancellor of the University by ascending in a balloon from Merton fields with his fourteen-year-old son, Windham. The … Continue reading