print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 2010,7081.1178
- Title
- Object: Jack on a cruise
- Description
-
A sailor follows a young woman walking (right to left) in a park. She (left) holds a closed umbrella or sunshade in her right hand, and looks coyly to her left. She wears a large hat tilted forwards, ankle-length skirt, projecting paniers at the back arranged over a petticoat which is ornamented in front with an apron. The sailor wears striped trousers and a cutlass, his arms are folded, and he carries a cane; he looks insinuatingly at the lady. A small dog runs beside her. On the right is an urn with serpents on a high rectangular pedestal under a large tree. In the background among trees is a pavilion in the form of a temple with a dome, pediment, and Corinthian columns. Beneath the title is engraved, 'Avast there, back your Main-top-sail.' 1780
Hand-coloured mezzotint with some etching
- Production date
- 1780
- Dimensions
-
Height: 353 millimetres
-
Width: 250 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- See the etching and stipple of the same composition, entitled 'Jack on a Cruise' (BM Satires 5797, 1861,0518.941). There is also a reduced mezzotint version with the same title as the etching: 2010,7081.1885, and a metalcut 2011,7084.20
The mezzotint is reproduced in C. N. Robinson's 'British Tar in Fact and Fiction', 1909, p. 226. The subject is sometimes found on mugs and jugs (ibid.).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2017-18 Sept-Jan, BM, G90, The Business of Prints
- Acquisition date
- 2010
- Acquisition notes
- Acquired with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Friends of the British Museum, the Art Fund, Mrs Charles Wrightsman, the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, and numerous individual donors.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2010,7081.1178
