The harmonious family

Dighton, Robert, the elder (ca. 1752-1814)

Item type:

drawing

Height:

16.8 cm  (6 5/8 in.)

Width:

27.6 cm  (10 7/8 in.)

Technique / Medium:

pen and black ink, brushed gray ink, gray wash, and black wash on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper

Description

Caricatures of eleven persons involved in making music in a spacious parlor. One is a singer, and one is a child (presumably serving as page-turner for the pianist). Instruments shown are violins, cello, French horn, transverse flute, oboe, bassoon, and square piano.

Iconclass

32A5
caricatures (human types)
44C312
political caricatures and satires
22D12
disharmonious sound, dissonance
48C7532
small group of musicians, chamber orchestra, jazz band
48C7512
female singer
41A221
living-room, parlour, sitting-room
48C74
notation of music
48C738
accessories ~ music: music stand
48C731
string instruments (bowed)
48C735
wind instruments
48C733
keyboard instruments

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Violin [3573]
Violoncello [3582]
Horn [4118]
Transverse flute [4093]
Oboe [4232]
Bassoon [3795]
Square pianoforte [2308]

Musical works

illegible music notation

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2

Bibliographic references

Barringer, Timothy J. Art & music in Britain: Four encounters, 1730-1900 (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2006) 16, 18.



Unseld, Melanie. Delights of Harmony: James Gillray als Karikaturist der englischen Musikkultur um 1800 (Wien: Bohlau Verlag Wien Koln Weimar, 2017) 57, fig. 7.

Notes

FROM MUSEUM WEBSITE:
Inscribed in black ink, within margin, lower right: "Dighton- del"; in brown ink, within margin, upper right: "12;" in black ink, within margin, lower center: "The Harmonious Family"

Watermark: "JWhatman" (initials in monogram) (Heawood 3459)

Signed in pen and black ink, within margin, lower right: "Dighton- del-"; not dated

RIdIM record id

6342