Time thrown away [art original].

Description

Title: Time thrown away [art original].
Creator: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, artist
Published / Created: [approximately 1827]
Publication Place: England
Abstract: Four ugly old women try to scrub a black man white with brushes, a kettle of boiling water, as steam billows around the room. A fifth woman brings buckets of hot water. A sixth, in the center background, drinks gin. The black man squats in a big tub, with a pained expression on his face
Description: Title inscribed beneath central image.
Attributed to George Cruikshank.
Date inferred from the 1827 publication date of George Cruikshank's Illustrations of time, plate 3 of which includes a smaller version of the central image. Cf. No. 15472 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 10.
Image also used in Plate 3 of Cruikshank's 'Illustrations of Time'; the attempt to 'wash a black man white' was a traditional example of an impossible task.
On paper watermarked "J. Whatman 1821".
Provenance: Purchased from Jarndyce, April 2023.
Extent: 3 drawings : sheet 23 x 29 cm
Extent of Digitization: This object has been completely digitized.
Language: English