Hobbies or Attitude is Every Thing: Dedicated with Permission to all Dandy Horsemen
Dandies here ride velocipedes instead of horses through park, with one nearly colliding with a pedestrian. Heath devoted a series of satires to velocipedes--foot-propelled bikes popularly known as hobbies--in response to a craze that swept fashionable London in 1819. That year Denis Johnson promoted a British model that he based on an 1817 design developed in Baden by Baron Karl von Drais (called a Laufmachine (running machine) or Draisine). The craze soon subsided as accidents mounted, and high fines were issued to those who rode on sidewalks.
Artwork Details
- Title: Hobbies or Attitude is Every Thing: Dedicated with Permission to all Dandy Horsemen
- Artist: Possibly by William Heath ('Paul Pry') (British, Northumbria 1794/95–1840 Hampstead)
- Publisher: Thomas Tegg (British, London 1776–1846 London)
- Date: June 22, 1819
- Medium: Hand-colored etching
- Dimensions: Plate: 9 3/4 × 13 3/4 in. (24.7 × 35 cm)
Sheet: 10 9/16 × 15 3/8 in. (26.8 × 39 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, by Exchange, 1970
- Object Number: 1970.541.134
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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William Heath ('Paul Pry')
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