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The Songstress

1782
Not on view
A young woman who wears a turban sits in a mountainous landscape and sings from a music book. The image illustrates "The Palace of Fortune, An Indian Tale" (1769), written by William Jones while still a student at Oxford (he later became a significant Orientalist scholar, high court judge in Calcutta, and was knighted). Little in the text relates directly to India, and Bunbury followed suit with generalized exotic elements.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Songstress
  • Engraver: John Raphael Smith (British, baptized Derby 1751–1812 Doncaster)
  • Artist: After Henry William Bunbury (British, Mildenhall, Suffolk 1750–1811 Keswick, Cumberland)
  • Publisher: John Raphael Smith (British, baptized Derby 1751–1812 Doncaster)
  • Author: Related author Sir William Jones
  • Date: 1782
  • Medium: Stipple engraving; first state of two
  • Dimensions: Plate: 9 15/16 × 9 in. (25.2 × 22.9 cm)
    Sheet: 12 1/16 × 10 1/4 in. (30.7 × 26 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Georgiana W. Sargent, in memory of John Osborne Sargent, 1924
  • Object Number: 24.63.363
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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