Study for an illustration to “The drummer of the house”

Burney, Edward Francis (1760-1848)

Item type:

drawing

Date of creation:

ca. 1792

Height:

14.5 cm  (5 11/16 in.)

Width:

9.8 cm  (3 7/8 in.)

Technique / Medium:

pen and ink with gray wash, over graphite

Place of creation:

England

Description

A military drummer marches through an open door playing a drum resting on his left hip. He is wearing a uniform with a tricorn hat tilted to the left over his forehead. His left foot is over the threshold, and his right foot is outside the door. He enters a room where a bearded, older man wearing a long, dark robe is seated in a large armchair. The man's left hand is held up close to his chin, and his outstretched right hand is holding a long stick, which he is holding up toward the drummer. Both men are looking at one another. This scene is contained in a circle that is inset within a stone portal. A drum is shown at the top of the circle with a bird perched on the circle to the left of the drum. A blank rectangle is directly beneath the circle where a caption or other writing could be inserted.

Iconclass

48C7341
drum (musical instrument)
45B
the soldier

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Side drum [2729]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

Eitner, Lorenz, Betsy Geraghty Fryberger, Carol Margot Osborne, and Dwight C. Miller. Stanford University Museum of Art, the Drawing Collection. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Museum of Art; Seattle: Distributed by University of Washington Press, 1993), 323, no. 154.

RIdIM record id

5307