Mr. Grimaldi as Clown
Print
8 February 1811 (published)
8 February 1811 (published)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Harlequin and Asmodeus, or, Cupid on Crutches, opened at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden on Boxing Day, Wednesday 26 December 1810, as an afterpiece to Ben Jonson's play Every Man in his Humour. This engraving depicts the clown Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837) as Joe Frankenstein wielding giant turnips to box the vegetable man he has made as from a pumpkin head topped with a sprig of celery, a cabbage body, carrot arms and fingers, beet legs and mushroom feet. Grimaldi was becoming well known about this time for constructing comic grotesque characters from found objects, and one of the earliest instances of this was in Harlequin in his Element, or, Fire, Water, Earth and Air, Covent Garden, 29 December 1807, when he made a figure from a fresh salmon, a pair of gloves, a hatbox, and the hat of the constable sent to arrest him. In Harlequin Padmanaba, or, the Golden Fish, 26 December 1811, he made a child's bassinet with four wheels of cheese hitched to a team of springer spaniels.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Mr. Grimaldi as Clown (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Hand-coloured etching |
| Brief description | Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837) as Clown in Harlequin & Asmodeus, or, Cupid on Crutches, Theatre Royal Covent Garden, 26th December 1810. Hand-coloured etching. Published by Rudolph Ackermann, 1811, from a drawing by R. Norman |
| Physical description | Hand-coloured etching of Joseph Grimaldi boxing a giant figure created out of vegetables. Titled 'Mr. Grimaldi as Clown in the Popular Pantomime of Harlequin & Asmodeus, now performing at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, Setting to with a Grotesque Figure which he makes with a series of Vegetables, Fruit &c, and which becoming Animated beats him off the Stage.' |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Gabrielle Enthoven Collection |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Literary reference | Harlequin & Asmodeus |
| Summary | Harlequin and Asmodeus, or, Cupid on Crutches, opened at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden on Boxing Day, Wednesday 26 December 1810, as an afterpiece to Ben Jonson's play Every Man in his Humour. This engraving depicts the clown Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837) as Joe Frankenstein wielding giant turnips to box the vegetable man he has made as from a pumpkin head topped with a sprig of celery, a cabbage body, carrot arms and fingers, beet legs and mushroom feet. Grimaldi was becoming well known about this time for constructing comic grotesque characters from found objects, and one of the earliest instances of this was in Harlequin in his Element, or, Fire, Water, Earth and Air, Covent Garden, 29 December 1807, when he made a figure from a fresh salmon, a pair of gloves, a hatbox, and the hat of the constable sent to arrest him. In Harlequin Padmanaba, or, the Golden Fish, 26 December 1811, he made a child's bassinet with four wheels of cheese hitched to a team of springer spaniels. |
| Associated object | S.1398-2009 (Copy) |
| Other number | GE5117 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.713-2016 |
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| Record created | December 20, 2016 |
| Record URL |
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