'Study of a Human Skull', British School 18th century

Artwork details

Artist

British School 18th century (1700‑1799)

Title

Study of a Human Skull

Date ?c.1750

MediumChalk on paper

Dimensionssupport: 178 x 199 mm frame: 425 x 441 x 24 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Presented by the Rev. John Gibson 1892

Reference

N02220

Not on display

Catalogue entry

N02220 Study of a Human Skull? c. 1750

Black chalk on cream hand-made paper 178×199 (7×7 3/4)

Presented by the Revd John Gibson to the National Gallery 1892; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1919

PROVENANCE ...; Revd John Gibson by 1892

EXHIBITED. Two Centuries of British Drawings from the Tate Gallery, CEMA tour 1944 (30 as Hogarth, ‘a study for “The Quack Doctor”’)
LITERATURE Michael Ayrton and Bernard Denvir, Hogarth's Drawings, 1948, p.78, pl.30 (as Hogarth, ‘a study for “The Quack Doctor”, dated 1744’); Davies 1959, p.56 n.104

The drawing entered the National Gallery's collection in 1892 (with no.12) attributed to Hogarth. This attribution, retained after its transfer to the Tate Gallery in editions of the Tate Gallery's British School catalogue until 1947, was apparently based solely on what Martin Davies, more judiciously referring to the drawing in 1959 as ‘ascribed to Hogarth’, termed ‘some apparently chance resemblance’ to the skull which reposes (also propped up on a book, but looking towards the right) on a table on the right of Hogarth's ‘Marriage A-la-Mode III: The Visit to the Quack Doctor’ (National Gallery no.115, repr. Michael Wilson, The National Gallery, London, 1977, p.116)… (read more)