'A Fat Man Eating and Drinking. The Glutton', Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland

Artwork details

Artist

Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland (1735‑1811)

Title

A Fat Man Eating and Drinking. The Glutton

From Album of Drawings by Nathaniel Dance-Holland and George Dance

Date date not known

MediumGraphite and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 156 x 169 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Purchased as part of the Oppé Collection with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund 1996

Reference

T08395

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Display caption

The theme of eating and drinking crops up frequently in Nathaniel Dance's comic drawings. These two are among his most highly finished works. They seem to show successive stages in a glutton's feast: he purposefully devours a second plateful, and then rests from his exertions.

Dance explored the subject of gluttony
in several drawings focusing on single figures. He also later developed the theme in more ambitious group
scenes, such as the aptly named
Enter the Roast Beef.

September 2004