'The Author and his Reader; a Frontispiece to 'The Tatler'', Francis Hayman

Artwork details

Artist

Francis Hayman (1708‑1776)

Title

The Author and his Reader; a Frontispiece to 'The Tatler'

Date 1759

MediumGraphite and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 135 x 90 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

T08137

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

Display caption

Hayman was a history painter and also had a flourishing portrait practice. He worked in the fashionable rococo style. He also produced nearly two hundred designs for engraved book illustrations. This drawing is one of four illustrations made by Hayman for frontispieces for a new 1759 edition of 'The Tatler', a periodical which appeared between 1709 and 1711. Hayman shows an author sitting at his table while his companion looks up from her paper. In its air of exasperation and boredom this drawing appears to gently upset the conventions of the contemporary conversation piece. It was engraved in reverse by Charles Grignion (1717-1819) for volume 1 of 'The Tatler'.

September 2004