A single-horse carriage is stopped in front of a rustic inn or roadhouse, with two caricatured Frenchmen (one a postillion wearing enormous boots) engaged in changing out the horse. An occupant of the carriage hands money out the window to a peasant woman holding an infant and accompanied by a young boy; two other shabbily dressed figures are nearby next to a tree, one of them playing a makeshift drum. In the doorway of the building stands a young woman, and to the left a man under an archway stands with arms crossed; both watch the scene unfold. In the background a postillion rides away on horseback, whip extended into the air
Alternative Title:
Changing horses on the road to Paris
Description:
Title from dealer's description., Signed by the artist in lower left., and One of five views by the artist F.G. Byron that record his visit to France in 1790; they were exhibited at the Society of Artists the following year. This drawing was exhibited under the title "Changing horses on the road to Paris" (Society of Artists, 1791, no. 39).
Subject (Geographic):
Clermont (France) and France.
Subject (Topic):
Carriages & coaches, Horses, Taverns (Inns), Postillions, French, Peasants, Country life, Ethnic stereotypes, and Drums (Musical instruments)
A large crowd of theatregoers file out of a theater and onto the street in a pouring rainfall and high winds that turns umbrellas inside out. One man has fallen and broken his lantern as a woman falls back over him as her shoes are being changed. The audience is a mix of classes, couples, old women, young boys, some carrying laterns, one with a cane
Description:
Title from published print based on this drawing. See Lewis Walpole Library call no.: Drawer 802.11.01.05., Signed and dated by the artist in lower right., "The artist is said to have based the theatre in this image on the Orchard Street Theatre in Bath, opened in October 1750 near the South Gate, outside the medieval walls of Bath ... The theatre was the first country theatre to be granted a Royal patent and became known as the Theatre Royal, Bath. .... The theatre was closed in 1805."--Dealer's description., and With Joel Spitz's collector's label on verso of mount.
Subject (Topic):
Couples, Lanterns, Rain, Theater audiences, Theaters, Umbrellas, Watchmen, and Winds
