C. W. Cope’s “Reading for Honours in the Country”. William S. Gilbert. Engraving. Fun (1864). Courtesy of the Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection in the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. Click on image to enlarge it.
“Reading for Honours in the Country” is a remarkable picture by Mr. Cope, R.A. It is the portrait of a loaf and round table, who live together in a largo room of unsatisfactory shape. At the further end of the appartment — that is to say, about three hundred yards from the spectator — is a thing squated on a chair, and apparently deeply absorbed in something or other which the spectator is not made acquainted with. Or perhaps the thing is ill, or perhaps it has just had a tooth out. Possibly (but we are assisted in this guess by the title) the thing is reading for honours, and if so, it is impossible to avoid remarking the singular eagerness it has manifested in commencing the work for which it has come down into the country. It has not so much as waited to unpack its clothes, but has no sooner arranged preliminaries with its landlady than it sits down and begins studying without a moment's loss of time. There is a nice bed and a beautiful bath, and a big sponge, aad a curious wash-stand in the room, all of which will repay investigation.
The cartoon in the same style as in the first review of the 1864 Royal Academy is signed with the initials “W.S.G.” This is the Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan fame who I assume also wrote the savage critical commentaries. — George P. Landow
Other paintings in this review and the artist’s homepage
- Charles West Cope, R.A. (1811-1890) — sitemap
- H. W. Pickersgill’s Reading for Honours in the Country
- J. E. Millais’s’s Charlie is My Darling
- R. S. Stanhope’s Penelope
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of Florida library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
“Our Critic among the Pictures. Second Notice.” Fun. (18 June 1864): 133-34. Courtesy of the Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection in the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. Web. 2 March 2016.
Last modified 2 March 2016