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An interior scene showing Christie's Auction Room in the year 1808 from the print series 'Microcosm of London.' A crowd stands in a high-ceilinged room, with cool green walls and light streaming in through high windows. Paintings in ornate and gilded frames are hung salon-style, seemingly jumbled, with vaguely recognizable classical compositions: here an Annunciation, there an Adoration, a saint, or an equestrian scene, a portrait. A framed reclining Venus (nude woman) is displayed on the auction stand, next to an auctioneer who gestures with his gavel. A lively and colorful crowd fills the room, with detailed dress and caricatured features.
Caricatured Christie’s
Comprised of 104 individual plates and published in three volumes between 1808 and 1810, The Microcosm of London was originally issued in twenty-six monthly parts. Published by Rudolph Ackermann (1764—1834), it supplied the luxury print market with a comprehensive volume on contemporary London. Cooper Hewitt holds a large number prints from the Microcosm, including this...
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Mir Finkelman
Date
July 16, 2019