A sailor sitting for his miniature. First edition of the etching.

Handcoloured etching. 26 x 38.5cm. sheet size. Loss in lower right corner. .V&A no. E.656-2007.Woodward was a prolific caricaturist whose forte was social humour. He tended to choose his subjects from the middle and lower classes, and had a particular fondness for featuring sailors. Here we see a sailor having his portrait painted by a miniaturist. Woodward contrasts the effeminate and fashionably dressed artist with the red-faced, brutish sailor. He offers the artist £10 (a representative price for a miniature portrait by a mid-range artist at the time) if he will finish the miniature in 10 mins, but only £5 if he is slower. He mentions his sweetheart - 'Poll' - to whom he will presumably give the portrait as a keepsake to remember him by while he is away. Much of the humour here stems from his puzzlement that there should be enough room for his 'hulk, head and stern' (all naval terms) on 'that there little bit of ivory'.This caricature was etched by Piercy Roberts, probably in 1803, and the plate later published by Thomas Tegg in 1807 when he took over Roberts' plates and stock. This impression is one which was reissued later (probably because it was popular and not limited by featuring a topical subject). Tegg's inscription which describes 1807 as the date the print was published has been scratched out of the plate, denoting the re-issue, something which was not uncommon for satirical prints made by Roberts and later published by Tegg.Provenance: Old Print Shop, NYC. …