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Description: | Signed: yes Description: A scene showing a porter holding a hare with two school boys against a plain background. The porter scratches his head as if perplexed. When this work (or another version of it) was exhibited, a newspaper stated that the picture showed 'two School Boys reading the direction on a Hare to a Porter'. The implication is that the porter cannot read and must rely upon the two boys to read the destination of the hare. The label on the hare indicates that it is intended for the artist, 'Mr. Zoffany, of Lincoln's Inn Fields'. The smaller boy to the left eats a sandwich whilst the other reads the label. The sandwich had only recently been invented, earlier in the decade by John Montague, 4th Earl of Sandwich, allegedly to save time on dining while engaged in all night gambling. The children may be portraits as it was fashionable to have one's children painted in such 'fancy pictures'. According to a tradition, the boys in the picture were the sons of the Baskerville family of Crawley Park who may have commissioned the work. Another story tells that Zoffany witnessed the scene from his window and, at once, committed it to canvas (Manners and Williamson, p. 19) | Subjects: | figure (porter schoolboys); everyday life; portrait ? | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Zoffany, Johann (German painter, 1733-1810, active in England) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8674... | Go to resource |
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