VIEW OF DIGHTONS: The Dighton Family, the Times, Caricatures

The 18th century Age of Enlightenment was an era of public display, supporting a flourishing print trade as portraits were commissioned by celebrities in the public eye. It was also an age of striking social contrasts, and while caricaturists like Gillray and Rowlandson achieved classic status by drawing attention to the brutal underbelly of urban life, there were many other lesser-known printmakers commenting shrewdly on society types and their adventures and misadventures. Robert Dighton, born in 1751, entered the recently established Royal Academy Schools as a teenager and set up in the publishing and etching business, followed by his sons Robert Jnr, Denis and Richard. Times could be hard, and at one point Dighton was convicted of stealing from the British Museum, whose inadequate record-keeping made theft relatively easy, a situation not unknown in more recent times. This book includes a catalogue of known works by all four artists and chapters on the work of each of them, with a focus on Robert Snr. In a style more delicate than some of his more celebrated contemporaries, he lampoons the world of pleasure and leisure in his ink and watercolour study of "Mr Deputy Dumpling and Family Enjoying a Summer Afternoon", or in a depiction of James Christie, the celebrated auctioneer, leering over the top of his desk and saying "Will your ladyship do me the honour to say £50,000 - a mere trifle?". Dighton's most famous print is probably "Descriptions of Battles by sea and land, in two volumes", showing two veterans, one without an arm, the other missing a leg, boring each other while puffing on their pipes, though there is also an affectionate respect for their sacrifice. Denis Dighton specialised in military portraits, and the family as a whole created a genre of full-length profile portraits popular with the military, clergy, stage, academics and lawyers. 108pp, softback, list of works, numerous colour reproductions.