The Guards on their march to Greenwich / K. Porter fecit.
After a painting by Robert Ker Porter, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793, and entitled "The Guards on their march to Greenwich" (cf. The Royal Academy of Arts: a complete dictionary of contributors, volume 6).
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Print shows a disorderly mob of English troops setting out under the Duke of York at the beginning of the Flanders Campaign, on their way to Greenwich where they will embark for the Low Countries; one soldier capers merrily at far left, as another collapses at his feet with a bottle of gin hanging from his mouth; a grenadier holding a rifle stands between an old woman bearing a basket and a young woman with a baby on her back; at center, a soldier embraces a woman, as a drummer stands slightly to their right; another soldiers lies sprawling on the ground at right, shaking his fist as a dog seizes his queue in its mouth and a boy stands over him and laughs; directly behind them at center is the Duke of York on horseback, and in the background stands a tavern with an "elephant and castle" sign which reads "Hardy"; at far right stands a lamp and sign post, upon which two boys are perched to view the passing scene; it reads, "Southwark & London Bridge ... Greenwich ... Westminster"; signed on the pole, "K Porter fecit 1793".
Fores, S. W., publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.