Iwan Bloch on the erotic engravings of Fanny Hill

Henry Spencer Ashbee (1834–1900) (aka Pisanus Fraxi) claims, in his Catena Librorum Tacendorum (1885), 83, that "Few works have been more frequently illustrated than the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure." He goes on to describe five mezzotints, "designed probably by George Morland, and engraved by his brother-in-law, William Ward, or by John Raphael Smith" (ibid.). (The whole of this book is available on the Internet Archive here.)

Ashbee cites La Bibliophile Fantaisiste (Geneva, 1869), 48, for the five plates he discusses, "with eight others." This information was repeated, in turn, by Iwan Bloch (aka Eugen Duehren; 1872–1922), who translated it into German in his Das Geschlechtsleben in England, mit besonderer Beziehung auf London, 3 Teile in 3 Bänden (Berlin, 1901-3) [Sex life in England, with special reference to London, 3 parts in 3 volumes]. This work was revised and shortened as Englische Sittengeschichte, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1912) [The history of English customs].

Bloch's earlier, longer work was twice translated (much abridged): first in America by Richard Deniston as Ethnological and cultural studies of the sex life in England: illustrated, as revealed in its erotic and obscene literature and art; with nine private cabinets of illustrations by the greatest English masters of erotic art, Translated and Edited by Richard Deniston (New York: Falstaff Press, 1934) and second in England by William H. Forstern as Sexual Life in England: Past and Present (London: Alfred Aldor, 1938; repr. London: Arco Publications, in association with the Rodney Book Service, 1958). The whole of Ethnological and cultural studies of the sex life in England is on the Internet Archive here; but Sexual Life in England: Past and Present is not online.

Given how horribly complicated it is trying to unravel the relationship between the above books, I thought it might be worth using the passage concerning the mezzotints by Morland (1763-1804) in Das Geschlechtsleben in England (vol.2 of which is online here) to show the differences between the three texts. I have put the British translation first, since it sticks closer to the German.

The Bloch passage is Das Geschlechtsleben in England, mit besonderer Beziehung auf London, 2.296–97; translated as Sexual Life in England: Past and Present (1958), 650; Ethnological and cultural studies of the sex life in England, 350–51:

Auch Zeichnungen zu eigentlichen obscönen und erotischen Schriften hat George Morland in Verbindung mit Ward und J. R Smith geliefert, vor allem die fünf folgenden vortreffllichen Mezzotintos zu John Cleland's „Memoire of a woman of pleasure"

No. 1. Fanny Hill and Phoebe. Phoebe berührt Fanny in indecenter Weise. Rechts ein Tisch mit einer brennenden Kerze.
No. 2. Mrs. Brown, the Horse Grenadier, and Fanny Hill. Fanny beobachtet durch eine Glasthür die fette Mrs. Brown in einer Liebesszene mit einem Soldaten.
No. 3. Fanny Hill, Louisa, and the Nosegay Boy. Der Junge und die zwei Freudenmädchen. Im Vordergründe ein Korb mit Blumen. Rechte auf dem Stuhl eine Rate.
No. 4. Harriet ravish'd in the Summer House (Harriet wird in dem Sommerhäuschen genotzüchtigt).
No. 4a. Dieselbe Szene ohne Titel, mit leichten Differenzen in Haartracht und Kleidung der Frau, der Ausstattung des Raumes u.s.w. Ist wohl die ältere-Zeichnung, und No. 4 eine spätere Kopie.
No. 5. Harriet and the Barronet (sie). Ein Paar auf einer Ottomane, während zwei andere Paare hinter demselben stehen und sie beobachten.
No. 5a. Dieselbe Scene mit leichten Aenderungen. Sopha, Haarfarbe und Haartrachten sind verschieden, rechts ist ein Lehnstuhl, links im Vordergründe Männerlut und Stiefel.

Forstern [the bracketed bits below are the bits of the German text omitted from his translation]

George Morland, in association with Ward and J. R. Smith, also supplied illustratons to obscene books. The following five excellent mezzotintos were for "Memoir of a Woman of Pleasure"

1. Fanny Hill and Phoebe. Phoebe touching Fanny in an indecent manner. [To the right, a table with a burning candle.]
2. Mrs. Brown, the Horse Grenadier, and Fanny Hill. Fanny watching through a glass door a love scene between the stout Mrs. Brown and a soldier.
3. Fanny Hill, Louisa, and the Nosegay Boy. Youth and two prostitutes. Basket of flowers and rod.
4. Harriet ravish'd in the Summerhouse. [Harriet is raped in the summer cottage]
[4a. The same scene without title, with slight differences in the hair and clothes of the woman, and the equipment in the room etc. This is probably the older drawing, and no. 4 a later copy.]
5. Harriet and the Barronet (sic). A couple on a setee, with two other watching them.
[5a. The same scene with slight changes. Sopha, hair colour and style are different. On the right is an arm-chair, on the left in the foreground men's boots and boots.]

Deniston

Morland also illustrated the real erotic works. His best known are the five superb mezzotints to John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure:

No. 1. Fanny Hill and Phoebe. Phoebe is initiating Fanny into tribadic practices.
[No.2] and Fanny Hill. Fanny secretly observes the fat Mrs. Brown being engaged by a lusty soldier.
No. 3. Fanny Hill, Louisa, and the Nosegay Boy. The youth is engaged with the two prostitutes. In the foreground a basket with flowers. At the right, a rod on a stool.
No. 4. Harriet ravish'd in the Summer House. A powerful drawing of a forcible rape.
No. 5. Harriet and the Barronet (sic). A couple engaged on the ottoman, while two other couples stand behind and watch them.

As you can see above, both Forstern and Deniston shorten Bloch's text, thought they do it is slightlly different ways. Both omit any mention of the "table with a burning candle" in no.1; but sometimes Fortern includes more detail (explaining, in no.2, that Fanny is "watching through a glass door") and somethimes Deniston includes more (describing no. 4 as "A powerful drawing of a forcible rape"). In general, Deniston is more informal ("the stout Mrs. Brown and a soldier" vs "the fat Mrs. Brown being engaged by a lusty soldier"), and is inclined to explain more ("Phoebe touching Fanny in an indecent manner" vs "Phoebe is initiating Fanny into tribadic practices"). What this means is that neither Forstern nor Deniston can be relied on.

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The five Mezzotints described by Ashbee and Bloch are below. Where I could find both coloured and uncoloured versions, I include both.

BTW: if you'd like to buy a set of these engravings, be prepared to pay a lot! See here for a set which sold for Euro 15,600 in 2006.

James Parmentier Portrait of Eliza Haywood

The James Parmentier portrait of Eliza Haywood—engraved by George Vertue—was first published 12 August 1723 as a frontispiece to the "Fifth" edition of Ab.1.5a Love in Excess. The advertisement begins: "This Day is publish’d, (With the Author’s Effigies curiously engraven by Mr. Vertue) …" The Parmentier portrait was next issued—with the same description—as a frontispiece to the Aa.3.0 Secret Histories, Novels and Poems on 23 December 1724, and was reissued in the "Second," "Third" and "Fourth" edition of this collection in 1725, 1732 and 1742.

There were two issues of the first of these five editions, but no copy of the first is known. Of the second (in Aa.2.1 The Works) only one of the thirteen copies listed on ESTC definitely has the portrait (CSmH [357090]), but I am yet to confirm whether or not the National Trust copy recently added to ESTC (ex libris Margaret Luttrell [Dunster Castle]) has the portrait. No copy of the second edition of this portrait is known (from the first edition of SHNP), because no copy of this set has been recorded, but there are thirty-five copies known of the remaining editions. These are listed at the end of this post.

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The James Parmentier portrait of Eliza Haywood is described by Alexander Pope thus:

  Fair as before her works she stands confess'd,
  In flow'r'd brocade by bounteous Kirkall dress’d.
  Pearls on her neck, and roses in her hair,
  And her fore-buttocks to the navel bare.

152. Kirkall, the Name of a Graver. This Lady’s Works were printed in four Volumes duod. with her picture thus dressed up, before them.

The features mentioned (a low-cut brocade dress and a rose in her hair) make it clear that Pope had seen the Vertue engraving, or the Parmentier painting on which it is based, before he penned these lines. And, though he mistakes the name of the engraver, it is possible that he records details of the Parmentier portrait (the pearl necklace) which were not included in the Vertue engraving. Of course, Pope may have been just "accessorising his verbal picture with a blazon-tradition cliché befitting his satirical mode," as Janine Barchas claims here.)

Barchas continues:

The beauty spot under Haywood’s right eye; the flower tucked behind her ear; the brazen, direct gaze; the dramatically plunging neckline; the ruffled informality of what appears to be a dressing gown; and the unfastened locks of hair arranged suggestively over both shoulders—all these visual clues make abundantly clear to an Augustan audience that the nature of the accompanying writing is amatory in nature. Like the epistolary conceit of the later novel, the engraving's cameo conceit (the likeness is framed as a private miniature on ivory and pinned to a background with a ribbon) licenses and enhances the intimate nature of the portrait. The result works as clever advertisement. In coarse language, it is a pin-up of the "Great Arbitress of Passion," promising another sensational bodice-ripper to the potential customer.

As this interpretation suggests, and Pope’s description of the plate in The Dunciad (1729) makes clear, Vertue’s image of Haywood is indebted more to the déshabillé portraits of the lovers of swaggering Restoration rakes than to the frontispiece portraits of estimable writers such as Homer, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare and John Milton. Vertue’s Haywood is more Nell Gwyn than Katherine Philips.

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A question that I raised in my Bibliography, which is increasingly interesting me, is when and where was the portrait issued, how many times the plate was recut (how many versions of the portrait are there), and where are the surviving copies of this portrait. When I sat down to write my "Appendix L: Portraits of Eliza Haywood" I only had access to two, very poor, copies of the portrait, which were on microfilm (the 1725 and 1742 portraits, below).

Nothing much has improved in ten years. There were no clear copies of Haywood's portrait readily available online until I posted them on this blog this week. Ironically, I obtained the high resolution images I have posted above from online sources, but the images were in inaccessible places, and invisible to search engines. Hopefully, they will now be readily discovered and widely used.

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In addition to copies of the portrait that survive in the five editions listed above and below, there are likely to be a number of copies which have been separated from one of these editions. One such is at the National Portrait Gallery in London (here).
[UPDATE 12 July 2015: two more are in the Royal Collection, catalogued at RCIN (656107 and 656108)]
The NPG copy survives in a Grangerised set of the eight volumes of The Early Diary of Frances Burney 1768–1778, ed. Annie Raine Ellis, 2 vols. (1889) and The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay 1778–1840, 6 vols (1904). These two works have been expanded with "approximately 2,700 engraved portraits and topographical views, plus other reproductions, drawings and some manuscript material" (inflating them to an amazing "25 folio volumes"!). The Haywood portrait—a copy of which I have ordered—is in vol. 1, pt. 1.

It is quite likely there are more to be located in Grangerised sets like these. If for no other reason, Mark Noble and James Granger encouraged it by including an entry for Haywood in their A Biographical History of England, from the Revolution to the End of George I's Reign (1806), 3.311 (Class 9 [Class 8 below is a typo]: "Men of Genius and Learning" here).

* * * * *

Nine copies of the third edition (in the 2nd ed. of SHNP): L [12612.ee.8]; O [Harding M 238; Vet. A4 f.159]; CtY-S [Ik.H336.C725b], DLC [PR3506.H94.A68 1725], IU [v.1–2 only], NNHuC, NNU-F [Brit.], PU [Singer-Mend.823.H339].

Eleven copies of the fourth edition (in the 3rd ed. of SHNP): L [12612.ee.11], Olmh [823.59 65]; CaOHM [B14525–28], FU [823.5.H427s 1732], ICN [Case Y 1565.H32], IaU [PR3506 .H94 1732], IU [Nickell x823 H33S1732], MNS [825 H329s 1732], MnU [Wilson 824H33 I], NhD [825 H33 M], NIC [Rare Books PR3506.H94 A72 1732].

Fifteen copies of the fifth edition (in the 4th ed. of SHNP): L [12614.c.13], BRG [BC823.69], REu [Reserve 823.59 HaY], LEu; CaBVaS [PR 3506 H94 A1 1742 v.1–4], CLU-C [*PR3506.H94A1 1742], CtY-S [Ik H336 C725d], DLC [RB 35], ICU [PR3506. H91 1724], IU [x823 H33S], MdBJ-P [823 H427S c. 1, -v.2], MH [15493.16.29.5], MiU, MnU [824.H33 I]; EuGG [8 FAB IX, 1080].

From this it appears that there are only two libraries in the world where it is possible to compare three editions of this portrait (L and IU) and three where it is possible to compare two editions (CtY-S, DLC and O). There are twenty-one copies in the US, nine in the UK, two in Canada and one in Europe. And none in Australia. Yet.

[UPDATE: 2 July 2016: After all my pictures disappeared again I decided to give up on external hosts for large versions (1000px) of my image files and, for now on, will stick with the smaller images (500px), which Blogger is prepared to host.]

A View of the Rotunda, ca. 1750

Here is something pretty to look at over the holidays: "Vue de l'Interieur de la Rotonde dans le Jardins de Ranelagh" in Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea (at the time, outside of London). The title is left-right reversed so that it could be viewed in a zograscope: "a device with a lens and mirror … used to give an illusion of depth to hand colored engravings called vue d’optique prints" (see here for more on zograscopes).

As you can see below, even if you use Photoshop to do a Horozontal flip of the heading, the lettering is still "wrong."

The Rotunda at Ranelagh was painted by Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697–1768)—a Venetian landscape painter—in 1754. This undated engraving—said to be after "Canaletto"—was engraved by F. Leizelt and sold at Augsburg. The caption reads (in German and French) "Prospect Von dem in[n]ern de la Rotonde in den Garten zu Ranelagh in London. Vüe de l'Interieur de la Rotonde dans le Jardins de Ranelagh." The imprint and copyright details are in French only: "Se vend à Augsbourg dans le negroce comun de l'Academie Imperiale d'Empire sous son Privilege et avec défense de n'en faire ni vendre de copies."

The hand-coloured engraving measures 320 x 430mm (12½ x 17 inches). If you have £280.00 you can buy your own copy here. I picked this one up on eBay for a lot less.

The centrepiece of Ranelagh Gardens, the rotunda had a diameter of 37 metres (120 feet) which was designed by William Jones, a surveyor to the East India Company. The central support housed a chimney and fireplaces for use in winter. In 1765, the nine year old Mozart performed in this showpiece, which figured prominently in views of Ranelagh Gardens taken from the river. Canaletto painted the gardens, and painted the interior of the Rotunda twice, for different patrons. The rotunda was closed for good in 1803 and demolished two years later (see Wikipedia for more).

It is not hard to imagine how the lens on a zograscope would give an illusion of depth: the part of the engraving in the centre of the lens would be heavily magnified, and as you move the lens over the image details would enlarge as they came into view and then shrink away as you moved on. You can also see how the zograscope would work to heighten the curves that dominate this particular composition, allowing a viewer to immerse themselves beneath the vast arching ceiling and within the endless curving walls of the rotunda. Without a zograscope on hand—no home should be without one—the following enlargements will have to do.

[UPDATE: 2 July 2016: After all my pictures disappeared (again) I decided to give up on external hosts for large versions (1000px) of my image files and, for now on, will stick with the smaller images (500px), which Blogger is prepared to host.]