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The political hydra
Title
The political hydra [graphic].
Publication
[London] : Pubd. Decr. 26, 1788, by S. Fores, No. 3 Piccadilly, [26 December 1788]
Physical Description
1 print : etching with stipple ; sheet 21.3 x 35.1 cm
Medium
laid paper.
Notes
Title etched below image.
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue.
Sheet trimmed within plate mark with nearly complete loss of imprint. Imprint from British Museum catalogue.
Exhibited: "Thomas Rowlandson: Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England," at The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, August - October 2010.
Exhibited: "Character Mongers, or, Trading in People on Paper in the Long 18th Century" at The Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, CT, October 2016 - January 2017.
Provenance
From a collection in fourteen volumes compiled by Francis Harvey and dispersed at auction, Sotheby, London, June 1900. Sold at Sotheby, London, 12 March 1919. Bequest of Hugh Dudley Auchincloss to Yale University Library, 1981. Bound by Riviere & Son in three-quarters red morocco with gold tooling and gold lettering on spine.
From a collection in twelve volumes probably compiled by Francis Harvey and sold at auction, Sotheby, London, June 1900. Bequest of Hugh Dudley Auchincloss to Yale University Library, 1981. Bound by Riviere & Son in three-quarters red morocco with gold tooling and gold lettering on spine.
Summary
"Six heads, full-face, of Fox, arranged in a row, all with eyes closed or looking down. [1] 'Out of Place In Character', with tousled hair and ill-shaved face. [2] 'In Place Out of Character', with powdered hair and well-shaved face. Cf. Wraxall, 'Memoirs', 1884, ii. 269-74. [3] 'As he might have been'. The cap of Liberty is just above his head. [4] 'As he wod have been'. A ducal coronet is just above his (powdered) head. [5] 'As he should have been'. Blood drips from his decapitated head on which is a cap. [6] 'As he will be'. The Prince of Wales's coronet and feathers are just above his powdered hair on which is the word 'Regent'."--British museum online catalogue.
Format
Images
Language
English
Added to Catalog
February 26, 2008
References
Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 6, no. 7385
Grego, J. Rowlandson the caricaturist, v. 1, page 231
Wright, T. Works of James Gillray, the caricaturist, page 105
Subjects (Local Yale)
Genre/Form
Satires (Visual works) - England - 1788.
Etchings - England - London - 1788.
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