A Half Pay Officer Who Has Been at Dinner with Captain Broad
October 26, 1771
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
plate: 6 1/4 x 4 1/8 in. (15.8 x 10.5 cm) sheet: 8 13/16 x 5 7/16 in. (22.4 x 13.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2011
Accession Number
2011.88(21)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the lively world of 18th British satire, Matthew and Mary Darly, a husband-and-wife team of prolific printmakers, created *A Half Pay Officer Who Been at Dinner with Captain* in 1771. This small etching (plate: 6 1/4 x 4 1/8 in.) captures humorous jab at military life through the figure of a "half-pay"—a retired or reserve soldier living on a modest government pension after conflicts like the Seven Years' War. The title playfully nods to a post-dinner encounter with the fictional (or punningly named) "Captain Broad," evoking images of indulgence, perhaps with the tagged motifs of smoking an...