The hard landlady
1787
Medium
oil on copper
Measurements
35.5 × 45.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1936
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
In this moralising composition, a country couple bearing gifts of chickens and eggs beseech their city-dwelling landlady for financial relief. Adorned with silk, velvet, fur and pearls, she seems poised between emotion and indifference to the couple’s plight. To the landlady’s right, a table is strewn with decorative ribbons, more pearls, a silver trinket and a mirror symbolising her vanity. This poignant scene is about to be disrupted by a small dog, which has run in from the right, determined to bark at and possibly eat the chickens that have been brought as compensation.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed (diagonally) in grey paint l.r.: J Dorner 1787
Accession Number
347-4
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Emotions and Mental States Human Figures Relationships and Interactions
Subjects (specific)
begging dog (species) feudalism landlords men (male humans) poor (people) power women (female humans)
Frame
This frame takes the form of a French Rococo double frame. These frames are characterised by swept edges on the face and back of the frame. They are built on a wooden profile that has a scotia on both sides. This form is recut to create the curved shapes of the swept edges which are then embellished with composition ornament. They are distinguished by the absence of a rectangular back edge and the sense the frame is layered, with a swept patterned surface sitting above another similarly shaped frame.
Other frames in this form are found on William Etty, Dorothea, William ETTY Study for the deluge (1843) (Nude woman asleep) and William Nicholson La belle chauffeuse (2047-3).
Frame Details
Framemaker
Unknown - 19th century
Materials
timber, composition, gold leaf
Frame Condition
old repairs to losses in composition overpainted with gold paint