Mr. Foote in the Character of Mayor Sturgeon, in the Mayor of Garrat

Date1765

After work by Johan Joseph Zoffany (1733 - 1810)

Engraver Johann Gottfried Haid

Publisher John Boydell

OriginEngland, London

MediumMezzotint engraving

DimensionsOther (Plate): 16 5/8 × 20in. (42.2 × 50.8cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1941-218

DescriptionLower margin reads: J. Boydell Excud.t/ Zoffany Pinxit/ M.r FOOTE in the Character of MAJOR STURGEON,/ in the Mayor of Garrat./ J.G. Haid fecit/ Published according to Act of Parliament August 14, 1765, by JOHN BOYDELL, Engraver in Cheapside, LONDON. [in manuscript ink] N.o 154."
Label TextThis print depicts a scene from the first act of the comedy The Mayor of Garratt which premiered in London's Haymarket Theater in 1763. The play was written and acted in by actor and dramatist Samuel Foote, who was one of the celebrated English actors of the eighteenth century. Foote, who played the character of Major Sturgeon, recounts the circumstances of the death of this predecessor, Major Molossus, to Sir Jacob Jollop. Jollop, whose daughters the Major was hoping to visit, stands on the left in a large wig, hands on his sides. The room is decorated with guns, maps, a coat of arms of London and buckets with initials "Sir J.J.". There is a table to the left on which books are placed, a chair (arm) to the right, and a paper on the floor. There is a large floral display in the fireplace in the rear.