Female Lucubration: Étude Nocturne
1772
Medium
Mezzotint in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 46.4 × 35.3 cm (18 5/16 × 13 15/16 in.); Plate: 50.5 × 35.3 cm (19 15/16 × 13 15/16 in.); Sheet: 50.8 × 35.9 cm (20 × 14 3/16 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
76102
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Philip Dawe worked for the great British satirist William Hogarth (1697–1764), and his mezzotints have a similar flair. This candlelight subject does not immediately appear subversive: a young woman holding a candlestick reaches over the flame toward a bookshelf above. Yet the woman is likely not the mistress of the house, judging from her maidservant attire, though she selects a book rather than dusting the shelf. At the time it was considered improper for women to do reading, serious or otherw...