The Pugilist: A Quarterstaff Player

attributed to William Hogarth
n.d.

This painting has been identified as a portrait of prize-fighter John Broughton. Elisabeth Einberg has pointed out that the sitter’s portrait compares more closely with contemporary likenesses of Figg (see the mezzotint by John Faber after John Ellys (British Museum and National Portrait Gallery, London), and a drawing by Jonathan Richardson the Elder (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum). However, the physiognomy seems to correspond more closely to portraits of Broughton than to portraits of Figg (see the Ashmolean portrait here and the British Museum print here). Whereas portraits of Figg tend to show a leaner man with prominent cheekbones and a frowning brow, those of Broughton tend to show a bulkier man with a rounded face and characteristic folds at the corners of his mouth. However, the portraits may simply reflect the age and fitness of the sitter. More telling perhaps (in which case this may indeed be a portrait of Figg) is the weapon he holds. Figg practised combats with weapons ("Trials of Skill") while Broughton practised combats with fists ("Trials of Manhood").