Gentlemen being instructed in dancing and posture. Mezzotint by B. Clowes after J. Collet, ca. 1768.

The central painting shows a female dancer in traditional costume, holding garlands. The painting on the right shows a funeral procession preceded by a buffoon. The gentleman receiving posture instruction is standing in a narrow rail which spreads his feet at 180 degrees. The cat and dog mimic the two dancers

"The often absurd intricacies of social etiquette were equally mocked by Collet in popular paintings such as 'Grown ladies taught to dance' and its companion piece 'Grown gentlemen taught to dance' (c. 1768), both reproduced in mezzotint for Robert Sayer. The latter composition even found its way onto the stage, introduced as a sequence in a pantomime."--Oxford dictionary of national biography

1768

1 print : mezzotint ; image 39.9 x 50.4 cm

Grown gentlemen taught to dance. Engraved after an original of M. John Collet in the possession of Mr. Smith. B. Clowes fecit ... [Lettering under leftmost painting:] Scaliger performing y Pyrrhic dance before the emperor. [Under large central painting:] Madame Elastique. [In left-hand dancer's pocket, a book with the legend:] The lads a dunce. [Under right-hand painting, a notice reading:] Grown gentlemen taught to dance & qualify'd to appear in the most brilliant assemblies at the easy expence of lsd. 1 11 6. [On books on floor:] Hornpipes seriously considered. Of harmony in musick. [On sheet music:] Country dances. Country bumkin. [On music album:] Select minuets. [In dog's mouth:] A treatise on the antiquity and dignity of dancing

Sander Gilman, Stand up straight! A history of posture, London 2018, pp. 149-151

Wellcome Collection 18064i