Note 546 — Chapter XLI

The picture was painted as a private speculation by the artist, and was offered for sale to the Corporation in 1791. The committee to whom the matter was referred suggested that the City might give 200 guineas for the picture, not so much on account of its intrinsic merit as because the artist was an industrious and promising man with a numerous family. This suggestion did not meet with the approval of the Common Council. It preferred to give the artist half that sum in acknowledgment of his pains and to allow him to keep the picture. Whether the artist thought himself thus sufficiently paid for his work is not clear, but the picture for many years stood in the Long Parlour at the Mansion House, where it served as a screen. It has recently been restored, and is now hung in the lobby of the Guildhall.—Journal 72, fos. 357b, 431-431b.