"Print showing George IV, in the title role of Mozart's opera, surprised by the sudden arrival of his wife, Caroline, as Donna Anna, lately returned from Italy, during the wedding feast scene, at which a number of bare breasted women are present; on the left, Lord Castlereagh, playing the role of Leporello, holds a long list of the King's female conquests."--Library of Congress online catalog
Description:
Title etched below image., Text below title: Don Giovanni by His M-y, Donna Anna by a celebrated actress, her first appearance on this stage these 7 years, Leporello by Derry Down Triangle, the other caricters [sic] by the Corps de Ballet., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires., and Mounted on page 20 of: George Humphrey shop album.
Publisher:
Pub. July 23, 1820, by H. Fores, 16 Panton St.
Subject (Name):
Caroline, Queen, consort of George IV, King of Great Britain, 1768-1821, George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount, 1769-1822, and Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791.
Subject (Topic):
Operas & operettas, Adultery, Surprise, Banquets, Dining tables, and Chandeliers
One of a collection of four similar images; the other three images are titled: Mr. Kean as Othello; Miss Hargraves as Amy; Miss Bartolozzi as the page in The marriage of Figaro. Formerly part of an album (now lost), each on the same size sheet but different colors and attributed to different artists. Annotations in red ink are by the same hand. Presumably these collages, made using the same farbics, were made by friends and exchanged as gifts. In this collage a full-length image of a woman, identified as Miss Vestris: her head and neck, arms, and boots have been cut from an unidentifed print or prints while her costume and hat and their trimming are cut from satin cloth with additional decorated paper trimming. On the verso written in red ink, two poems: "The Snow Drop by Henry Neele" and "I Saw Thee Weep, Byron" transcribed in two columns
Alternative Title:
Madame Vestris as Don Giovanni
Description:
Title written at bottom of sheet., Signed with initials in lower right corner; artist "H.A.S" is unidentified., Date of production from recipient's note on the verso of one of the collages and other internal evidence., and The poem on verso "The Snow Drop" in the Oriental Herald and Journal of General Literature, volume 16, page 502 and signed "W. B." Also published in May 1828 in the The Ariel: A literary and cricial gazette (Philadelphia), vol. 2. no.1.
Subject (Name):
Vestris, Lucia Elizabeth Bartolozzi, 1797-1856,, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791., and Da Ponte, Lorenzo, 1749-1838.
Subject (Topic):
Characters, Actresses, British, and Operas & operettas