All from George Cruikshank, Click for full size! (Most below the fold.)
Blue Devils, George Cruikshank, Etching. Subject: Depression, Suicide, Devils & Demons.
Bumpology, George Cruikshank, Aquatint coloured. Subject: James De Ville, John Thurtell, executed 1824, Phrenology.
The Cholic, George Cruikshank, Etching coloured. Subject: Cholic, Pain, Demons & Devils.
The Headache, George Cruikshank. Etching coloured. Subject: Headache, Devils & Demons.
Indigestion, George Cruikshank, Etching coloured. Subject: Indigestion, Pain, Devils & Demons.
Jealousy, George Cruikshank, Etching coloured. Subject: Jealousy, Emotions, Devils & Demons.
Is the coffin carrier in the first etching black? The chap in the right hand picture about to smother his lover is certainly black, maybe Othello?
In the third etching one of the devils is stabbing her with a butter knife!
I noticed the bed in the etching posted yesterday, as in the fifth etching here, one room accomodation for the genteel poor. complete with curtains both for warmth and to hide it should one have guests.
There is so much in even the plainer ones, thank you Caine!
In the Blue Devils, I wondered about those last two characters, but I’m not sure. There is, I think, a skull aspect to them, and maybe a cross between human and demon? In Jealousy, yes, my first thought was Othello, that would be a classic which would be sure to occur to Cruikshank.
Yes, I recognize that jam/spread knife, I have a set of them! I would say representing a relentless, heavy, dull pain. I’ve never had cholic, and don’t want it.
Yes, the combination sitting room / bed room is one I’ve come across in so many books, and is close to what studio apartments/flats are still like. They could get terribly claustrophobic, I’d think, but easy to keep clean.
I think even when Cruikshank was trying for just the basics, he just couldn’t help adding in details. I have moments like that in my artwork, and I have to be careful to stop, else I fuck everything up. Somehow, Cruikshank always avoided that last, the man was very talented.
I like how the demon painting the burning building is painting with actual fire.
I wasn’t sure either, but they are in a line of what are definitely people. Contempory illustrations with non-white, but not exoticised (sp?) are so important in showing the UK hasn’t been all white for centuries.
I thought the different implements were such a clever way of expressing the different kinds of pain, and that the butter knife was in some ways the worst, as you say relentless.
Headache-picture:
Thinking back to my first migrane, that painting seems very accurate. I clearly should have gone to an Exorcist and not a doctor! (joking)
That headache. Oooo boy I know that one.
Yeah, I know the headache all too well.
Ridana:
I was amused by that too, but such things give artists wonderfully bad ideas. :D