The interior of a loft stacked with sacks, an angry countryman ferociously prods one with a pitchfork, while a handsome young woman stands in alarm behind him in the doorway. From the sack projects the terrified head and hands of the woman's lover; his queue indicates a military officer. A white owl flies under the rafters
Description:
Title and date supplied by cataloger., Attributed to Rowlandson., Compare to a print (in reverse) published 16 May 1807 by R. Ackermann: I smell a rat, or, A rogue in grain. See no. 10814 in v. Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., and For further information, consult library staff.
Subject (Topic):
Hiding places, Adultery, Couples, Hiding, Bags, Pitchforks, and Surprise
A scene in a chamber with the end of canopy bed visible in the background, left. A woman in her undergarments, a candlestick in the foreground positioned suggestively between her legs, reaches out to cover her husband's one good eye as he walks through the front door; behind her, her lover escapes undetected with his clothes over his arm. Outside, through the open door, a servant can be seen leading a horse, with a barn across the yard. To the right of the door, a chamber pot sits on a ladder-back chair with a hat and a fiddle hanging off pegs on the wall above
Alternative Title:
Wife's dream
Description:
Title devised by cataloger., Signed by the artist in lower right., Date supplied by cataloger., and With an extensive inscription on verso, in an unidentified hand, that might represent the original idea for this drawing that was sent to Rowlandson: A woman being catched in her Bedchamber with her Paramour by her husband who had but one Eye. She ran to him, crying aloud that she dream he saw with both’ and therefore, I must know," added the artful Baggage "whether my Dream be fulfill’d - saying this she shut his good Eye which gave her Gallant an opportunity of slipping away unperceived by her husband.