John Collet - Scene in a London Street - 1770
The modest title of this painting by John Collet – A Scene in a London Street – has to be one of the greatest understatements in art history. There's enough happening in this painting for an entire movie. Front and center is The New Bagnio, clearly a dubious establishment where bathing is taking a back seat to more risque shenanigans, and it appears we've just missed witnessing some sort of street fight. Not to get too "Where's Waldo?", but here are a few things to look for: • The "loose" lady without stays, stepping from a hired sedan chair • The bailiff with his tipstaff, and a forlorn debtor newly in captivity • The Bath Fly, a coach traveling between London and Bath, with partyin' passengers on top • A monkey, dressed in a mini-turban • A pet dog dressed in a kerchief • A chimney-swift peering from a chimney • The large basket belonging to a strawberry street-vendor, with smaller cone-shaped pottle-baskets (see another strawberry vendor with similar baskets here) • The irate vendor (or is she the bagnio's madame?) attacking the fallen gentleman (perhaps an officer?) in the street, one of her baskets still on his sword • The angry folk on the left: thieves, more vendors, sailors, • The same hapless gentleman's shaved head, and his wig, complete with bow, knocked to the pavement. What else can you discover? Two Nerdy History Girls
Size: 5464px × 4123px
Photo credit: © steeve-x-art / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: alamy, art, artist, artistic, artwork, artworks, beautiful, collection, collections, collet, colorful, colourful, creative, cultural, culture, decor, decorative, exhibition, fine, galleries, gallery, heritage, historic, historical, illustration, illustrations, image, images, john, london, painting, paintings, picture, pictures, portrait, quality, scene, stock, street
