FORTUNE bestowing equal Favours on Two Brothers (named CHARLES and FREDERICK) the first of whom uses them with prudence, while the latter destroys them in extravagance and disspation.

Date1787

Publisher Carington Bowles 1724 - 1793

MediumLine engraving and etching on laid paper

DimensionsOverall: 9 3/4 × 15 1/2 in (24.76 × 39.37cm)
Other (Platemark): 7 × 10 7/8 in (17.78 × 27.62cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1959-83,1

DescriptionThe upper margin reads: "Book 36. Twelve Prints respresenting the CONTRAST between VIRTUE and VICE, exhibited in the Characters of TWO BROTHERS."

The lower margin reads: "Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles,/ N.o 69 St. Paul's Church Yard, London./ FORTUNE bestowing equal Favours on Two Brothers (named CHARLES and FREDERICK) the first/ of whom uses them with prudence, while the latter destroys them in extravagance and dissipation./ Published as the Act directs, 31 August, 1787."Label TextThe first of twelve prints representing the "Contrast between Virtue and Vice exhibited in the Characters of Two Brothers." This print sets up the moral narrative to follow of two brothers named Charles and Frederick, who travel down different paths after receiving their inheritance.What follows is a cautionary tale about virture and vice, a popular subject in sets of prints like William Hogarth's "Modern Moral Conversations" or prints depciting the parable of the Prodigal Son.

At center, the allegorical figure of Fortune, a semi-nude woman blindfolded and balanced on a wheel holds, out two bags, metaphorically containing the to brother's fortunes, one on each side. The two young men stand with hands outstretched to receive the bags of money. In the background, a landscape and a church on one side and a tavern on the other. On the right, a strolling couple donates money to a man they meet walking down on the road. On the left, another couple rides in a fancy open carriage.ProvenanceBefore 1959, the Old Print Shop (New York, NY); 1959-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).