Mr. Robert Levett861. Etching on steel in black ink on paper, 4 x 41/8 in. (10.1 x 10.5 cm) – image size. Private collection. [Entire page] Click on image to enlarge it.
“Well try’d through many a varying year
See LEVETT to the grave descend;
Officious, innocent, sincere,
Of every friendless name the friend.
This is the second stanza of Dr. Johnson’s memorial verses with the remaining stanzas quoted under the etching. The print shows Levett seated with apples in his lap and one in his hand that he offers to a child clinging to his mother’s skirts. Dr. Johnson stands behind, and a young girl behind him. In the background can be seen a barometer marked “Set fair.” Levett was a friend of Johnson and a longstanding inmate of his house. Levett was described by Boswell in 1752 as “his humble friend Mr. Robert Levett, an obscure practiser in physic amongst the lower people, his fees being sometimes very small sums, sometimes whatever provisions his patients could afford him; but of such extensive practice in that way, that Mrs. Williams has told me his walk was from Houndsditch to Marybone. It appears from Johnson’s diary that their acquaintance commenced about the year 1746; and such was Johnson’s predilection for him, and fanciful estimation of his moderate abilities, that I have heard him say that he should not be satisfied, though attended by all the College of Physicians, unless he had Mr. Levett with him…He was of a strange and grotesque appearance, stiff and formal in his manner, and seldom said a word while any company was present.” (142). Smetham also did an oil version of this subject.
Bibliography
Boswell, James: The Life of Samuel Johnson. Vol. I. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1907.
Last modified 23 March 2022