the book was already a popular one for painters - the younger artist francis hayman had produced designs for gravelot's engravings for the 1742 edition as well as a pair of scenes from the novel for vauxhall gardens, also around 1742 (one is lost and the other is now in the national trust's collections at sizergh castle). highmore painted his own series of twelve works between 1741 and 1743 and on 16 february 1744 advertised that ten of them were ready to be viewed at his studio, with another advertisement on 10 may announcing that all twelve paintings in the set were complete. the first advertisement also stated he was taking subscriptions for a set of twelve engravings after the novel - highmore brought louis truchy and guillaume philippe benoist across from france to produce them.