Alderman boydell (half length), wearing a bag-wig, stands in profile to the right, slashing with a knife a small picture on the wall. He glares furtively; the fingers of his left hand are greedily crisped. He says: "there! there! - there's a nice gash! - there! - ah, this will be a glorious subject for to make a fuss about in the news-papers; - a hundred guineas reward, will make a fine sound: - there! there! - o, there will be fine talking about the gallery: and it will bring in a rare sight of shillings for seeing of the cut pictures; - there! - & there again! - egad there's nothing like having a good headpiece! - here!! - here!! - there! there! - and then these small pictures won't cost a great deal of money replacing; - indeed one would not like to cut a large one to pieces for the sake of making it look as if people envied us; no! - that would cost rather too much; & my pocket begins - but mum! - thats nothing to nobody - well, none can blame me for going the cheapest way to work: - to [etched over 'there', erased but just legible] keep up the reputation of the gallery - there! there! there! - there! there!" the first five words of the title have been scored through but left conspicuously legible. 26 april 1791
hand-coloured etching. Date: 1791. Dimensions: Height: 343 mm; Width: 242 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: John Boydell. Collection: British Museum. The monster broke loose-or-a peep into the Shakespeare Gallery (BM 1851,0901.521)
Loading...
