CHARLES paying his addresses to an amiable Young Lady, the Daughter of a Nobleman.

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): 6 3/4 × 10 7/8 in (17.14 × 27.62cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1959-83,5

DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "CHARLES paying his addresses to an amiable Young Lady, the Daughter of a Nobleman./ Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles,/ N.o 69 St. Paul's Church Yard, London./ Published as the Act directs, 31 August, 1787."Label TextThe fifth in a series of twelve prints representing the "Contrast between Virtue and Vice exhibited in the Characters of Two Brothers." This print is a continuation of the moral narrative that chronicles the fates of two brothers named Charles and Frederick, who travel down different paths after receiving their inheritance. What follows is a cautionary tale about virtue and vice, a popular topic of prints like William Hogarth's "Modern Moral Conversations" or those depicting the parable of the Prodigal Son.

Charles courts the daughter of a nobleman. He sits on a chair next to the young lady and attempts to embrace her. The young lady's chaporone sits behind the two at a table, occupied by some sewing in her hand. The room is furnished with several chairs, a sofa, mirror, and a fireplace. the fireplace has a vase with flowers on the grate and the mantle has several vases and a small Buddha figure. A sewing box sits on the table in front of the older woman. A large urn filled with flowers or a chimney board decorated with that design sits in the fireplaceProvenanceBefore 1959, the Old Print Shop (New York, NY); 1959-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).