Cosway as a ragged beggar or street-seller sits in a crouching attitude on a stone step, a stone wall behind him and a stone building or high wall on his right. A tobacco pipe is thrust through his hat. Beside him are two bundles of matches and two ballads: 'Life of Wittington' and 'New Song'. His arms are folded in his cloak and his face is contorted. 
<p><br>A caricature of a self-portrait of Cosway engraved in stipple by Bova, Publish'd . . . March 26th 1786 by Mno Bova &amp; E. Diemar N° 114 Strand' (No. 31 in F. B. Daniell's 'Catalogue Raisonné'). He is seated on a low stone seat or step beside a column, dressed as a seventeenth-century cavalier, wearing a cloak and feathered hat; the magnificence of background, dress, and pose are travestied by the squalor of the caricature. A book, 'Vita Di Rubens', takes the place of the matches and ballads. The title is also satirized: 'Rdus Cosway Armiger R.A. / Primarius Pictor Serenissimi Walliae Principis'.  1 May 1786
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<br>Etching
1786<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1786-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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