The Horticultural Fate–dedicated to the Rainer Family

William Heath ('Paul Pry')|Thomas McLean|William Shakespeare|Edmund Spenser

June 30, 1829 · Hand-colored etching · Drawings and Prints

Heath here satirizes London society and current fahion in an image that responds to the Fête of the London Horticultural Society held on 27 June, 1829, at the Society's gardens at Chiswick. It was a fashionable affair with lady patrons headed by Princess Esterhazy but, unfortunately, experienced very bad weather. Fashionably dressed men and women are shown huddling under large trees or walking tiptoe through rivers of mud. Torrential rain descends vertically and water streams from the ladies's wide-brimmed hats while, the few tents in the background are woefully inadequate to shelter the crowd. Like many prints from this period, Heath signed it with a small top-hatted dandy holding an umbrella–Paul Pry, a nosy character from a play.

Artist

William Heath ('Paul Pry')|Thomas McLean|William Shakespeare|Edmund Spenser

Date

June 30, 1829

Medium

Hand-colored etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Jill Spalding, 2022