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Creator:
Johan Joseph Zoffany, 1733–1810
Title:

Edward Shuter, John Beard, and John Dunstall in Isaac Bickerton's "Love in a Village"

Former Title(s):

Edward Shuter as Justice Woodcock, John Beard as Hawthorn, and John Dunstall as Hodge, in 'Love in a Village' by Isaac Bickerstaffe

A scene in Love in a Village

Mr. Beard, Mr. Shuter, and Mr. Dunstal, a scene in Love in a Village

Date:
1767
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
51 1/4 x 65 inches (130.2 x 165.1 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1985.19.6
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
actors | animal | art | boots | buckles | comedy | costume | cravat | dog (animal) | elderly | gesture | literary theme | music | opera (discipline) | painting (visual work) | performance | rifle | servant | squires | stage | stockings | tricorne
Associated Places:
Covent Garden | England | Greater London | London | United Kingdom
Access:
Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1263
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Johan Zoffany, a German émigré, revivified the conversation piece in the 1760s and, with the backing of David Garrick, almost single-handedly popularized the theatrical picture. Staged by the Covent Garden Theatre company, Love in a Village was a popular English ballad opera in the tradition of The Beggar’s Opera. In this scene, Edward Shuter plays Woodcock, a pompous local magistrate (with his pretentious painting of the Judgment of Solomon), and is contrasted to a bluff countryman named Hawthorn, played by John Beard. Shuter began his career as a protégé of David Garrick and was best known for his comic roles. Before joining the Covent Garden company in 1759, Beard was the celebrated tenor who performed the music of George Frideric Handel. Beard retired from the stage in 1767, the year Zoffany exhibited this picture with the Society of Artists of Great Britain.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

British Comic Art 1730 - 1830 (Museum of Art and Archaelogy, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1988-10-14 - 1988-12-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Patricia Crown, British comic art, 1730-1830, from the Yale Center for British Art, Museum of Art and Archaelogy, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, 1988, p. 30, NC1477 G63 C76 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Letter, The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 53, Chatto & Windus, London, October 1783, p. 849, Available online at British Periodicals II http://search.proquest.com/docview/8428596/fulltext/1?accountid=15172 [Website]

Raymond Mander, The artist and the theatre, the story of the paintings collected and presented to the National Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham , London, 1955, pp. 24-36, PN2111 .M3 1955 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Victoria Manners, John Zoffany, R.A. His Life and Works. 1735-1810, , John Lane, London, 1920, pp. 17-18. 139-40, 143, NJ18.Z68 +M3 1920 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

W. Somerset Maugham, The Bidding Started Slowly, Connoisseur, vol. 129, June 1952, p. 4, N1 C75 129 [ORBIS]

Sir Oliver Millar, Zoffany and his Tribuna, Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art, London, 1967, pp. 37-38, NJ18 Z68 M56 (YCBA) [YCBA]

J. Fitzgerald Molloy, What Players are They?, English Illustrated Magazine, vol. 51, Central Publishing, London, December 1887, pp. 194-195, Available online at British Periodicals II http://search.proquest.com/docview/3236523/fulltext/1?accountid=15172 [Website]

Ronald Paulson, Emblem and expression, meaning in English art of the eighteenth century , Thames and Hudson, London, 1975, p. 141, , NX543 P38 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Martin Postle, Johan Zoffany, RA : Society Observed, , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011, pp. 58, 197, cat. no. 26, fig. 51, NJ18 Z68 + A12 2011 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robin Simon, Shakespeare, Hogarth, and Garrick : plays, paintings and performances, Paul Holberton Publishing, London, 2023, p.94, fig. 73, N8252 .S56 2023 (YCBA) Oversize [YCBA]

Society of Artists of Great Britain, A catalogue of the pictures, sculptures, designs in architecture, models, drawings, prints, &c. L which the Society of Artists of Great-Britain have the honour to exhibibit [sic] to His Majesty the King of Denmark at their room in Spring-Garden, September, , 1768, p. 9, cat. no. 138, N5055 S6 C3 (YCBA RARE BOOKS) [ORBIS]

Society of Artists of Great Britain, A catalogue of the pictures, sculptures, designs in architecture, models, drawings, prints, etc. : exhibited at the great room in Spring Garden, Charing Cross, April the twenty-second, 1767 / by the Society of Artists of Great Britain incorporated by his, William Bunce, London, UK, 1767, p. 15, no. 194, N5055 S6 C3 (RARE BOOKS, YCBA) Also Available online (18th Century Collection Online - Gale) [ORBIS]

Society of Artists of Great Britain, A critical examination of the pictures, sculptures, designs in architecture, models, drawings, prints, etc., exhibited at the great room in Spring Gardens, Charing Cross, April 22, 1767, intended for the use of those who would understand what they see. , W. Griffin, London, UK, 1767, p. 21-22, no. 194, N5055 S6 C3 1760A (RARE BOOKS, YCBA) Also Available Online (18th Century Collections Online - Gale); there is no entry for # 188, Wright's "Portrait of a Man, Known as the "Indian Captain" [ORBIS]

Society of Artists of Great Britain, Le pour et le contre, being a poetical display of the merit and demerit of the capital paintings, exhibited at Spring Gardens ... , London, 1767, pp. 22-23, N5055.S6 C3 1760A (YCBA) Also available Online Online (18th Century Collections Online - Gale) [YCBA]

South Kensington Museum, Catalogue of the second special exhibition of national portraits commencing with the reign of William and Mary and ending with the year MDCCC, on loan to the South Kensington museum. May 1, 1867., London, 1867, p. 136, no. 614, N7598 S6 1867 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Denys Sutton, The Sale-Room, Apollo, vol. 122, August 1985, p. 164, N1 A54 122:1 OVERSIZE [ORBIS]

Penelope Treadwell, Johan Zoffany : Artist and Adventurer, , Paul Holberton Publishing, London, 2009, pp. 92-94,445, NJ18 Z68 T74 2009 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Mary Webster, Johan Zoffany, 1733-1810, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2011, p. 180,181,197.., fig. 164, NJ18 Z68 W43 2011 + (YCBA) [YCBA]


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