Rowlandson underscored gambling’s grip on British aristocrats at the end of the eighteenth century by centering the action in this drawing upon the two Spencer sisters, Georgiana and Henrietta, presiding over a nighttime game of hazard. The setting is Devonshire House, home of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire who was well known for her love of gambling. At night, the duchess often turned the drawing room into a private gambling salon. The Duchess and her sister Lady Bessborough, Viscountess Duncannon, are drawn wearing hats, one throwing dice, the other taking money from her purse. To the left, a young lady has run out of money and is being offered a loan by a young officer. The young gambler at right wears the star of the Order of the Garter, identifying him as the Prince of Wales.

Georgiana Spencer (1757-1806) daughter of the First Earl Spencer, married William Cavendish, Fifth Duke of Devonshire, in June 1774. The new Duchess of Devonshire never felt entirely at home at Chatsworth and preferred to entertain and be entertained at Devonshire House, the Cavendish’s townhouse on Piccadilly. Georgiana’s gambling was legendary. By the early 1780s the Duchess had turned the drawing room at Devonshire House into a gaming house, bringing in professional croupiers and even bankers. Players stayed up all night, and it was not uncommon for several thousands of pounds to be lying on the tables at any one time. Georgiana herself was among those who incurred massive financial losses. Georgiana, the seated dice-thrower, was by 1789 more than £60,000 in debt, almost $6,000,000 today.

The present watercolor appears to be the primary version of the subject as it is dated four years earlier than the other two drawings of the Duchess of Devonshire. One of these is dated 1791 and was sold at Sotheby’s London in 1990.[1] Another version, also dated 1791, is in The Metropolitan Museum, New York.[2] The arrangement of the money on the table and of the tassels behind the head of the young officer varies in each of the versions. The game appears to be hazard, a forerunner (and more complex version) of the American dice game craps.

High stakes are also conspicuous at Karen Kilimnik’s pastel Card games – Neptune’s grotto ancient Greece and 1745. While in the Rowlandson, one of the dice has already fallen, while the other is about to drop, transfixing those at the table, it seems game over in Kilimnik’s spiel. Her protagonist, comforted by her pooch, has left the table, cards midair.

[1] Sale, London, Sotheby’s, 15 March 1990, lot 50

[2] See J. Hayes, Rowlandson Watercolours and Drawings, London 1972, p. 151, no. 87