Caricatures, Campagna, and Connoisseurs: Thomas Patch and the British Grand Tour in Eighteenth-Century Italy

Printmaking

Patch was probably taught printmaking by Giuseppe Zocchi and Ferdinando Gregori. He made individual prints of views of Florence and copied works of art. In the late 1760s he became more ambitious and etched caricature portrait heads and full-length likenesses that were assembled in books.

E'morto il babbo

Non sa risolvere

E’ morto il babbo and Non sa risolvere
Etchings
Private Collection

This pair of prints appear to be unique and, except for the caricature of the Portuguese dwarf Tabitha Mendes, they are the only known likenesses of women in Patch’s work. Their moralistic subject is also quite unlike Patch’s other work, and perhaps they were a private commission showing empathy over the death of a father and concern for a jilted lover.