A Connoisseur and Tired Boy
Engraver Philip Dawe British
After Henry Robert Morland British
Publisher Robert Sayer British
Not on view
painted landscape, with the yawns of a boy who must support the heavy frame. The work belongs to a type of night-piece popular in Europe since the seventeenth century in Europe, where artists depicted forms dramatically lit by a single, often hidden, light source. The Met's collection also includes a smaller anonymous version of this mezzotint published in 1776 (62.659.4).
The artist Henry Morland published a description of his related painting in 1775: "An Italian Connoisseur and tired boy. The connoisseur is an admirer of no pictures but Italian, therefore his taste is greatly affronted on being shown a Dutch picture; nevertheless his attention is engaged by some effect he sees in the landscape - has forgotten the boy, who is tired with holding the picture in a heavy frame, which he is just ready to drop."
