From Soho
Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg French
Publisher Robert Sayer and John Bennett British
Not on view
Loutherbourg moved to London from Paris in 1771 and worked for David Garrick at the Drury Lane Theatre, introducing transformative set designs and lighting effects. During this busy decade he produced "Caricatures of the English," perhaps intending them for the French market. This example centers on a thin woman wearing a voluminous cap and shoes supported by spiked heels. Henry Angelo identified her in his memoirs as a "lady abbess" (slang for a brothel keeper whose "house" in Soho would have been close to London's major theaters).The set of caricatures was in fact only published in London, first by Torre & Co. in 1775 (Giovanni Battista Torre was a friend of the artist who had traveled with him to England), reissued soon afterward by Sayer & Bennett in 1776, and a third time in 1790 by William Holland.
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