1-624-593 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'La Belle Assemblee', 1787. 'Here love his golden shafts employs; here lights his constant lamp; and waves his purple wings reigns here and revels.' (Milton). Parody of Joshua Reynolds' 'Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces', showing society ladies at the altar of Love. No longer in the first flush of youth, they are: Lady Archer leading a lamb; Lady Mount-Edgecumbe with a pair of doves; Miss Jeffries with flowers; Lady Buckinghamshire, known for her love of gambling, pouring incense on the altar. Lady Cecilia Johnstone, known as St Cecilia, playing the lyre. On the wall are the Three Graces.Illustration from Social Caricature in the Eighteenth Century ... With over two hundred illustrations by George Paston [pseudonym of Emily Morse Symonds], (London, 1905).