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Core Record |
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| Title | Popinjay | |
| Alternative Title | Archery | |
| Collection | Reading Museum Service | |
| Artist | After Lancret, Nicolas (French painter, draftsman, and collector, 1690-1743) Attributed to Gibson (British artist, active mid 19th century) |
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| Date Earliest | possibly about 1825 | |
| Date Latest | possibly about 1875 | |
| Description | A game once practised by archers involved tying an effigy of a parrot, then known as a 'popinjay', to a pole. The first to sever the string with his arrow was the victor and would be awarded the title of 'Popinjay'. Consequently the term was often used to describe a vain young man. This artist's depiction of the game in practice is copied from Nicolas Lancret's The Four Ages of Man: Maturity which has a broader composition with cavorting couples seated around the two competitors. The humour of Lancret's visual pun seems rather lost in this toned-down nineteenth-century imitation. | |
| Current Accession Number | REDMG:1932.17.1 | |
| Subject | figure; everyday life | |
| Measurements | 99 x 84 cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on canvas | |
| Acquisition Details | Bequeathed by Hugh E. Walford 1932. | |
| Principal Exhibitions | People in Paintings, Museum of Reading, 2000 (no catalogue). | |
| Notes | A copy after Lancret's The Four Ages of Man: Maturity, 1730-5, National Gallery, London. The present painting is currently attributed to 'Gibson' an artist local to Reading in the late nineteenth century. |
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| Rights Owner | Reading Museum Service, Reading Borough Council (all rights reserved) | |
| Author | Dr Anne L. Cowe | |