Beschreibung:

CIRCLE OF HUBERT-FRANCOIS GRAVELOT (FRENCH 1699-1773)THE EUROPEAN RACE (A SET OF THREE PAINTINGS: HEAT I, II, III)Oil on canvas93.5 x 132.5cm (36¾ x 52 in.) and smaller (3)Provenance:Collection of a noble English familyRelated Literature:The Political Club, An explanation of the first, second, and third heats of the European race, and of the hieroglyphical frontispiece thereto prefix'd, London, J. Cooper 1740, pp. 7-40;Frederic George Stephens and Edward Hawkins. Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 11 vols. (London, 1877), vol. 3, pp. 229-314This apparently unique set of three previously unpublished large oil paintings, known collectively as The European Race, charts the struggle for power between the European nations in the 1730s from an English point-of-view. The paintings present this struggle in the form of a race between the nations for a crown (a symbol of dominion over overseas territory), which hangs from a beam on the umpire's stand on the right of the first painting. These fascinating satirical pictures represent large-scale and slightly altered versions of a set of three engravings first published in London between 1737-39 by the engraver Charles Mosley (1720-1770). The overall tenor of the series is deeply critical of Robert Walpole's cautious foreign policy during the 1730s, when his Whig government held office.Tate Britain has an original design for a fan by the French artist Hubert-François Gravelot (Paris, 1699-1773), who worked in London between 1732-45, which is almost identical in composition to the first painting in the present series, entitled 'The European Race, Heat Ist' in the series of engravings by Charles Mosley Another drawing attributed to Gravelot in the British Museum, shows the same scene as the third painting from the present set, but in reverse. Hubert-François Gravelot was a French engraver and book illustrator who trained in the studios of Jean II Restout and François Boucher before moving to London in 1732. Here Gravelot soon became closely connected with William Hogarth and his circle, who were strongly influenced by his Rococo painterliness. Gravelot taught at the St. Martin's Lane Academy, a school for young artists in Covent Garden, which brought him into contact with the young Thomas Gainsborough and Francis Hayman (1708-76), the latter becoming Gravelot's closest student and collaborator in London. Hogarth and Gravelot also both attended a club of artists and literary men based at Old Slaughter's Coffee-House on St. Martin's Lane, which held meetings twice a week and whose membership included the painters Francis Hayman and Jonathan Richardson It is likely that the original designs for The European Race (the second two 'Heats' of which are apparently lost) were a result of Gravelot's active participation in the political debates at Old Slaughter's and were perhaps a collaboration with other members and artists there. Charles Mosley's engravings of the original drawings, copies of which are held in the British Museum and in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, bear inscriptions which help to explain the complicated symbolism of The European Race series. The present paintings also bear numbers referring to a key, which can be reconstructed with the aid of the engravings. A 1740 pamphlet of the Political Club's also gives an extensive explanation of the sometimes obscure contemporary references within the series.