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Caricature
Cooke, George - Enlarge image
Caricature
- Place of origin:
Hanley, England (made)
- Date:
April 1906 (drawn)
- Artist/Maker:
Cooke, George (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Pen and ink and wash on paper
- Museum number:
S.393:27-2002
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This caricature is of Juno Salmo when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 16 April 1906. It is one of the many superb caricatures of Edwardian music hall performers that were drawn by the artist George Cooke when he was based at the Grand Theatre. He compiled them in a series of albums.
The contortionist Juno Salmo was discovered by a French circus agent in a German circus. He was booked to perform in the Nouveau Cirque in Paris, where he was known as the homme grenouille or ‘frog-man’. His act there consisted of performing in a frog costume, his head hooded and his shoulders dislocated, hopping around the aquatic part of the ring and doing acrobatic contortions on a trapeze that appeared to be made of bamboo. A review of his performance at Hanley in the Staffordshire Sentinel of 17 March 1906 noted that he performed ‘some amazing contortions and remarkable stage effects to sustain the Mephistophelian title which he assumes’. Salmo had previously appeared at the Grand in January 1905.
