An Episode from 'The Mock Doctor' or 'Dumb Lady Cured' (from Henry Fielding's 'The Mock Doctor' or 'The Dumb Lady Cur'd', adapted from 'Le médécin malgré lui' by Molière, 1732) (a Vauxhall Supper Box Picture)
Francis Hayman, RA (Exeter 1708 – London 1776)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1740 - circa 1741
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1320 x 1820 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Sizergh Castle, Cumbria
NT 998399
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, An Episode from 'The Mock Doctor' or 'Dumb Lady Cur'd' (Henry Fielding's 'The Mock Doctor', or 'The Dumb Lady Cur'd', adapted from Le médécin malgré lui by Molière, 1732) by Francis Hayman, RA (Exeter 1708 – London 1776). An elderly gentleman gives money to a seated man; two women watch. The scene is taken from Henry Fielding's 'The Mock Doctor', or 'The Dumb Lady Cur'd', adapted from Molière's play 'Le médecin malgré lui' (1732), and first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1732. It shows the scene in Act Scene , set in an interior, with the pretend-dumb Charlotte and her maid at the left; entering the room approaches, disguised as an apothecary, her lover, Leander; the mock-doctor Gregory, at the right, turns to wink at the spectator, his hand held out behind him to receive a purse, held by Charlotte's tyrannical father, Sir Jasper. The second of the two Vauxhall supper box paintings, it was engraved in 1743. Though largely painted by Hayman’s assistants, it may have been designed by Hubert Gravelot (1699–1773. This scene shows Gregory, the fagot-maker, pretending to be a doctor, holding out his palm for his fee, before treating the pretend-dumb Charlotte. The picture lost a 15cm strip along the bottom edge, no doubt because of rough usage at Vauxhall. This has recently been repainted, following the evidence of the engraving. A companion to Pamela (NT 998400).
Provenance
Formerly in the alcove at Vauxhall Gardens; Vauxhall Gardens sale (Ventom & Hughes), 12 October 1841, lot 200 (£ 4.14.6); Lowther Castle sale, 29 April 1947, lot 1851;given by Henry Hornyold Strickland (1890 – 1975) with Sizergh Castle and its estates in 1950
Makers and roles
Francis Hayman, RA (Exeter 1708 – London 1776), artist
References
Gowing 1953 L. Gowing, 'Hogarth, Hayman and the Vauxhall Decorations', Burlington Magazine, XCV, 1953, p.11, no.7 Allen 1987 Brian Allen, Francis Hayman, New Haven & London, 1987, p.180, no.177 Allen 1986: Brian Allen, 'Francis Hayman and the Supper-Box Paintings for Vauxhall Gardens', in The Rococo in England: A Symposium, ed. Charles Hind, 1986, pp.125 & 131-33