The Dance on Dun-Can (Picturesque Beauties of Boswell, Part the Second)
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 9/16 × 11 9/16 in. (26.9 × 29.3 cm) Plate: 10 7/16 × 10 13/16 in. (26.5 × 27.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.888-344
Tags
Art Historical Context
This lively etching, titled *The Dance on Dun-Can*, was published on May 15, 1786, as part of the second installment of *Picturesque Beauties of Boswell*. Created in the medium of etching—a technique prized in the late eighteenth century for its ability to produce affordable, widely circulated images—the print captures a spirited scene of men dancing, reflecting the vibrant cultural encounters described in James Boswell’s popular 1785 travel narrative, *Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides*. The work belongs to a series of satirical and picturesque illustrations inspired by Boswell’s account of ...
About the Artist
Elizabeth Jackson|Samuel Collings|Thomas Rowlandson|Malcolm D. McLeod|James Boswell (British|British) · 1785 |1757 –1787 |1827
British, active 1785–87|British, London 1757–1827 London