print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 2010,7081.1376
- Title
- Object: Tragedy Burlesqued, or the Barber turned Actor
- Description
-
The interior of a barber's shop. The barber, ranting and gesticulating wildly, holds up the open tragedy of Alexander the Great; in his right hand is a pair of tongs. His hair hangs loose and on his head is his barber's basin. He is fashionably dressed, but wears an apron, which, blowing aside in his violent action, displays a large hole in his breeches. A stool, jug, &c, have been overturned, hair-pins lie on the ground, a cat flees in alarm. His little apprentice (left), holding a wig and a tress of hair, looks on with amusement, as do a man and woman (right) who look over a flight of stairs which ascends from the room.
The room is a poor one, with plaster coming from the wall, a broken candle on the chimney-piece, over which is a torn print of a tragedy-king reclining on a couch. Two wig-boxes stand on the floor, one inscribed 'Tragedy Wigs', the other 'Comedy Wigs'.
Mezzotint with some etching
- Production date
- 1785-1790
- Dimensions
-
Height: 345 millimetres (trimmed)
-
Width: 253 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Dighton's original watercolour for this print from the collection of Mr Jeffrey Rose was sold at Sotheby's, 23 February 1978, lot 72.
The design is a parody of the famous composition by Hogarth of Garrick as Richard III, which is shown hanging on the back wall; the barber echoes his pose (AVG).
States
(i) lettered with the title and 'Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles, // No. 69 St. Paul's Church Yard, London. [further inscription below the title probably exists]
(ii) republished by Bowles & Carver; publication line altered to 'Printed for & Sold by Bowles & Carver, No.69 St. Pauls Church Yard, London. Published as the Act directs [date]' [1935,0522.1.201]
- Location
- Not on display
- 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
- 2010,7081.1376