page_title: The Hours (engraving)
hierarchical_section_title: The Hours (engraving)
caption_attribution_description: Zoomed-in view of original engraving "The Hours" by Francesco Bartolozzi
context_page_description: The Hours is a stipple engraving by a master of the technique, Francesco Bartolozzi, published on April 4, 1788, from the print shop of Thomas Macklin, at No. 39 Fleet Street, London. The print is based upon a painting by Maria Cosway. The dancing hours, or nymphs of Greek mythology, were a pictorial representation of the poem "Ode on the Spring" by British poet Thomas Gray. The poem begins:
  "Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours,
  Fair Venus' train, appear,
  Disclose the long-expecting flowers,
  And wake the purple year!
  The Attic warbler pours her throat,
  Responsive to the cuckoo's note,
  The untaught harmony of spring:
  While, whisp'ring pleasure as they fly,
  Cool Zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky
  Their gathered fragrance fling."
  Maria Cosway sent a copy of the engraving to Jacques-Louis David, a highly influential French painter, who stated, "on ne peut pas faire une poesie plus ingenieuse et plus naturelle."
context_section_description: The Hours is a stipple engraving by a master of the technique, Francesco Bartolozzi (1725-1815), published on April 4, 1788, from the print shop of Thomas Macklin, at No. 39 Fleet Street, London.  The print is based upon a painting by Maria Cosway (1760-1838). The dancing hours, or nymphs of Greek mythology, were a pictorial representation of the poem "Ode on the Spring" by British poet Thomas Gray (1716-1771). The poem begins:
  "Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours,
  
  Fair Venus' train, appear,
  
  Disclose the long-expecting flowers,
  
  And wake the purple year!
  
  The Attic warbler pours her throat,
  
  Responsive to the cuckoo's note,
  
  The untaught harmony of spring:
  
  While, whisp'ring pleasure as they fly,
  
  Cool Zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky
  
  Their gathered fragrance fling."
  Maria Cosway sent a copy of the engraving to Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), a highly influential French painter, who stated, "on ne peut pas faire une poesie plus ingenieuse et plus naturelle." ("One couldn't make poetry more ingenious and more natural.")
caption: A closer view of The Hours by Francesco Bartolozzi. This engraving is in very good condition, showing only three small spots of fauxing: two to the left of the title and one above the cherubs.
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