"Performers after a Respectable Funeral" a watercolour by John Leech c1850

LEECH, John (1817–1864). “Performers after a Respectable Funeral.”
 
Original watercolour for Punch, c.1850–1853, published in Pictures of Life and Character, Second Series (Bradbury & Evans, 1854).
 
Watercolour and pencil on wove paper, signed lower left, titled in the artist’s hand at lower centre. Image 310 × 360 mm (sheet 330 × 510 mm). Unmounted, loosely housed in an archival sleeve; very light marginal toning only, the colours bright and unfaded. Very good.
 
This original watercolour was the design for John Leech’s Punch cartoon “Performers after a Respectable Funeral,” later engraved for Punch, or the London Charivari between 1850 and 1853 and reissued in Pictures of Life and Character, Second Series (1854).
 
The composition shows a group of “mutes” and “professional mourners” relaxing in a tavern after a funeral. Their sombre top hats, black scarves, and grave expressions — the props of their trade — are replaced by laughter, drink, and smoke; the innkeeper stands to one side, half-amused, as the men discard the trappings of faux grief and fall into boisterous camaraderie.
 
The published engraving, as reproduced in Pictures of Life and Character, carries the subtitle “Costume: Mourning,” identifying it as part of Leech’s series on the absurdities of fashion and custom. The finished wood-engraved version (executed by the Dalziel Brothers or Swain) tightens the linework and adds cross-hatching, but follows this original composition almost exactly, confirming it as Leech’s working drawing for publication.
 
Leech’s Punch watercolours of this nature are held in institutional collections but rarely show up in commerce.