Shakespeare Sacrificed; or, The Offering to Avarice
Date:
1789
Materials & Techniques:
Etching with hand coloring on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 19 3/4 x 15 1/8 inches (50.2 x 38.4 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered upper right within image: "Immor- | -tality."; center left within image: "[?Mecoenas]_Leo_Alexander_Psha !"; center right within image: "List of | SUBSCRIBERS | to the | SACRIFICE."; lower center within image: "The cloud-capt | The gorgeous | The solemn Temples | Yea the great Globe | Shall dissolve | And like the baseless | fabrick of a vision, | Leave not a wreck behind"; lower right within image: "MODERN-MASTERS"; lower center within image: "King Lear. | Richard III. | Henry VI. | Macbeth | Hamlet | Romeo & Juliet | Midsummer Nights dream"; lower center within image: "OY [...] EI [...] - AMOY [...] O [...] - EI [...] I T [Omega] ."; lower right within image: "ANCIENT - MASTERS"; lower left: "James Gillray, design et fecit."; lower right: "Pub.d June 20.th 1789. by H. Humphrey No. 18. Old Bond Street."; lower center: "SHAKESPEARE - SACRIFICED ; _ or _ The Offering to AVARICE." | Soon as possible will be published, price One Guinea, N.1. of SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED, with the Text, annotations, &c. complete; the Engravings to be carried on, in imitation of the Aldermans liberal plan_further particulars will shortly be given in all the Public papers_ _ _"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.824
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
book | wings | grave | socks | stockings | wig | shoes | shirts | trousers | cloak | caricature | statue | portfolios | moneybags | burin | brushes | palette | shovel | bellows | altar | skeleton | horn | chimneys | buttons | buckle | dome | columns | engraver (printmaker) | boys | babies | children | mother | satire | hell | fur | smoke | spirits | devil | sacrifice | Royal Academy of Arts | bubble | immortality | grave digger | avarice | snail | vanity | offering | printseller | literary theme | fire | King Lear, play by William Shakespeare | The Tempest, play by William Shakespeare | Hamlet, play by William Shakespeare | A Midsummer Night's Dream, play by William Shakespeare | Macbeth, play by William Shakespeare | Henry VI, part I by William Shakespeare | Henry VI, part II by William Shakespeare | plays
Associated Places:
United Kingdom | England | Somerset House | Westminster Abbey | London | City of Westminster
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
British Comic Art 1730 - 1830 (Museum of Art and Archaelogy, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1988-10-14 - 1988-12-04)Shakespeare and British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1981-04-23 - 1981-07-05)Painters and Engraving - The Reproductive Print from Hogarth to Wilkie (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-03-26 - 1980-06-22)
Publications:
Christopher Baker, Creator of nightmares: Henry Fuseli's art and life, Reaktion Books, London, 2024, pp. 107, 108, fig. 44, NJ18 .F98 B35 2024 (YCBA)Rosie Dias, Exhibiting Englishness, John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery and the formation of a national aesthetic , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2013, pp. vi., 100, 101, fig. 34, N72.N38 D53 2013 (YCBA)Katherine McPherson, Art & Celebrity : In the Age of Reynolds & Siddons, University Park, Pennsylvania, 2017, pp. 52-53, 143, 148-49, 152-53, fig. 23, NJ18 R36 M37 2017 (YCBA)