Melpomene

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James Gillray
1756-1815
Melpomene
aquatint & etching with stipple, hand colored
image: 330 x 243 mm (oval); sheet: 359 x 265 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2489
Published: 
London : Pubd. Decr. 6th, 1784, by J. Ridgeway, No. 196 Piccadilly, [1784]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Printmaker from BM Satires.

Summary: 

Oval design shows Sarah Siddons standing on stage, her head turned in profile to the left, her left hand outstretched to take a heavy purse which hangs on a pitchfork emerging from clouds, dropping a dagger to the ground as she does so; in her left hand is a cup whose contents she is pouring on the ground, and the panniers of her dress fly backwards revealing two bulging pockets, one full of guineas, the other of notes or cheques inscribed '£1000, £300', &c.; she is saying: "Famish'd & spent relieving others woe, Your poor devoted Suppliant only begs, This morsel for to buy a bit of Bread." The clouds of smoke rise in a pillar of cloud from the pit of the theatre where flames are indicated, from which come the words "Encore! Encore!", while iIn the background a temple of Fame on a mountain-top is collapsing, and the figure of Fame falls backward, dropping his trumpet.

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