3-021-021 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Rich Widow", by D. W. Wynfield, in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1869. Engraving of a painting, depicting '...fawning suitors, displaying their various attractions like so many peacocks - all so amiable and engaging, yet doubtless perfectly prepared to cut each other's throats; one and all, on the slightest encouragement, ready to take the place of the pet spaniel curled up at their mistress's feet!...Widows are proverbially known to possess dangerous attractions; and are even sometimes suspected of throwing out irresistible allurements. But if, in addition to the recommendation of being a widow, a lady should happen to be, in the words of the clause quoted in the catalogue, also "young, beautiful, and a great fortune,'' what man is there would be insensible to such a rare combination of female charms?...We understand that this capital picture is founded on an episode relating to Mrs. Bennett, as told in Mr. John Foster's biography of Sir John Elliot. It follows that possibly real personages may be fitted to the painter's characters. We must not, however, deprive the ingenious reader of the delightfully scandalous quest of the game we have marked'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.