A portrait of richard cosway, r. A. , standing under the wide hooped petticoat of a tall lady, his wife, maria, who puts her arms round him. His head and shoulders emerge from the petticoat slightly below the level of her waist; his face is in profile looking upwards. His right hand clutches her cloak, his left, is round her waist. She wears a flat ribbon-trimmed hat, and looks down at him saying, "tis geting nothing - nay - tisgeting worse than nothing. "
in the background, on; the wall (right), is a picture of a little man wearing a bag-wig and sword, climbing up a ladder which rests on the breast of a woman. Beneath it is engraved:
"lowliness is young ambitions ladder,
whereto the climber upward turns his face
but when he once attains the upmost round
he then unto the ladder turns his back,
looks unto the clouds - scornin [sic] the base degrees
by which he did assend. Shak. Jul. Caesar. " 1 january 1782 etching with use of the rocker. Date: 1782.
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