James Figg, detail from Southwark Fair

by William Hogarth
1733/4

Courtesy of the Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (Accession Number B1977.14.18332)

This is probably a portrait of Figg as a mounted swordsman: "Figg, bald-headed, seated on a pony, is seen starting to ride through the Fair. It was the practice of a great Master of Defence to ride through the City preceded by trumpets and drums and colours flying. Figg kept a great tiled' booth on the Bowling Green, Southwark, during the time of the Fair. There was a performance daily at noon, which closed at four" (Henry Benjamin Wheatley, Hogarth's London: Pictures of the Manners of the Eighteenth Century, Constable, Ltd., 1909, p. 146).