William Pether after William Redmore Bigg: Two Favorite Chickens Going to Market. Mezzotint, London, Published Jany. 1. 1793, by J. Brydon, at his Looking Glass, & Print Warehouse, Charing Cross, and T. Foss, No.131, Strand.
Two small girls, one holding a chicken and the other feeding a second, look on woefully as a young man and woman with donkeys, prepare to leave for market day. The young woman kneels beside a chicken coop and basket of eggs, her hand outstretched towards the girls and their favorite chickens.
William Pether (c.1738 - 1821) was an English mezzotint engraver and portrait painter. Born in Carlisle, Pether became a pupil of the painter and mezzotint engraver Thomas Frye, with whom he entered into partnership in 1761. A fellow of the Incorporated Society of Artists, he contributed to its exhibitions paintings, miniatures, and engravings from 1764 to 1777. He was also an occasional exhibitor with the Free Society and the Royal Academy. His many pupils included the painters and mezzotint engravers Henry Edridge, and Edward Dayes. His last plate published in London is dated 1793, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy for the last time in 1794.
William Redmore Bigg (1755 - 1828) was an English painter of portraits and genre scenes. Born in London, he enrolled in the Royal Academy schools in 1778 where he studied under Edward Penny R.A. His best-known genre pieces include Schoolboys giving Charity to a Blind Man, exhibited in 1778, and A Lady and her Children relieving a Distressed Cottager, exhibited the following year. Bigg also produced many small portraits in oil and pastel. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and the British Institution until his death. He was elected an RA in 1814.

25.25 x 29.5 inches framed; 19 x 24 inches plate.

Private collection, New England, USA.

The paper is heavily discolored by foxing.

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