1800 Engraving by W. Ward after George Morland "The Fruits of Early Industry and Oeconomy"
This is a mezzotint engraving dated March 25, 1800 titled “The Fruits of Early Industry & Oeconomy”, after a painting by George Moreland. It was engraved by William Ward 1762-1826 and published in London, March 25, 1800. The colored portion of the mezzotint measures 11-7/8 x 14-7/8” with the full sheet measuring 16"x 20". The mezzotint is attached to a heavy paper board and has some glue residue on the edges, but is in remarkably good condition. The frame dimensions are 17”x 21-1/8”.
The original painting of "The Fruits of early Industry and Economy" is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and rather appropriately as it reflects the views Benjamin Franklin broadcast in Poor Richard's Almanac earlier in the 18th century. In fact, Franklin wrote to his grandson Benny Bache in 1780 that those who study hard "live comfortably in good houses", while those who are idle "are poor and dirty and ragged and ignorant and vicious and live in miserable cabins and garrets." (BF Letters 9/25/1780).
This is a moralizing work that contrasts the rewards of a diligent, hardworking life with the consequences of idleness and extravagance. The comfortably pudgy successful businessman with his decanter of port, black servant in livery and healthy progeny came to be a popular target of contempt, and his idle counterpart as not so much sinning as sinned against by an implacable system that favored the few at the expense of the many.
In this engraving of a family in a wealthy interior; an elderly man at center, seated at a table, a glass in his left hand, holding out his right to receive coins from a younger man standing to left with his right hand on a book and a quill in his mouth; on the table, another glass, writing materials, coins and notes; to right, a woman wearing a large feathered hat, supporting, and holding up a bunch of grapes for, a young child standing on a chair; looking on from behind the chair, a boy and, at right, a black servant holding a bowl of fruit, his left hand on the chair; in front of the table, a young girl lying on the carpet with a spaniel; a shipping wharf seen through an open window to left.
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