Thirty Different Likenesses

There are numerous stories about Garrick’s remarkable ability to change his expression.  William Hogarth complained that the constant mobility of Garrick’s face made him impossible to paint, a scene recreated in a mechanical toy sixty-five years after Garrick’s death.  The apocryphal story is that while Garrick sat before Hogarth for a portrait he mischievously altered his countenance so as to render Hogarth’s work totally unlike the subject.  Hogarth would begin again, and Garrick would change his expression again, and again, until Hogarth was furious.  Sly’s print contains a correct profile of Hogarth and thirty different likenessnes of Garrick from pictures by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Parkinson, Roberts, etc., and thirty sketches of heads selected from Hogarth’s best pictures. R. Evan Sly created a series of such prints; this one is "No. 3 of R. Evan Sly's New & Amusing Mechanical Prints."

Click through the slideshow  to see the various likenesses.