'The Physiognomist' print

Hand-coloured lithograph print, The Physiognomist, drawn by George Spratt and lithographed by G.E. Madeley, of 3 Wellington St Strand, published by C. Tilt, of Fleet Street, 1831. This personification print depicts a physiognomical or phrenological lecture in progress. The lecturer is seated at a kneehole desk, facing left, and is made from a variety of heads including turbanned and female. An audience awaits consultation on the other side of the desk, a green carpet beneath. Inscription below.

‘Personifications’ are illustrations of people made up from the tools of their trade or the objects they are normally associated with. In this example, the main character’s body is made up from a number of different shapes and sizes of male and female heads. As the title suggests, this shows the practice of physiognomy – using facial characteristics to determine personality. It could also show the study of phrenology. Phrenologists believed that the shape and size of various areas of the brain (and therefore the overlying skull) determined personality. In the audience, a black woman is awaiting consultation, an unusual feature in English prints from the 1830s.

The artist George Spratt was also a man-midwife and collaborated on a number of these drawings with the lithographer G E Madeley and the publisher and bookseller Charles Tilt.