A Family Party Takeing an Airing
A footman dressed in gold-laced livery rides a velocipede with a seat added at the front to accomodate an elderly woman. The latter holds a cat and does not notice that two monkeys torment her driver. Heath devoted a series of satires to velocipedes--foot-propelled bikes popularly called hobbies--in response to a craze that swept fashionable London in 1819. Denis Johnson developed a British model, derived from one patented in Baden in 1817 by Baron Karl von Drais (called a Laufmachine (running machine) or a Draisine). The craze lasted less than a year, declining as accidents mounted and fines were imposed on those who rode on sidewalks.
Artwork Details
- Title: A Family Party Takeing an Airing
- Artist: Attributed to William Heath ('Paul Pry') (British, Northumbria 1794/95–1840 Hampstead)
- Publisher: Thomas Tegg (British, London 1776–1846 London)
- Date: March 24, 1819
- Medium: Hand-colored etching
- Dimensions: Plate: 9 13/16 × 13 3/4 in. (25 × 35 cm)
Sheet: 10 3/4 × 14 3/16 in. (27.3 × 36 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1971
- Object Number: 1971.564.11
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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