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Caricature
Cooke, George - Enlarge image
Caricature
- Date:
February 1906 (drawn)
- Artist/Maker:
Cooke, George (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Pen and ink and wash on paper
- Museum number:
S.393:25-2002
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This caricature is of Dr Carl Hermann when he was topping the bill at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 26 February 1906. He was billed as ‘The Man who Tamed Electricity! The Human Resistance Coil! The Modern Miracle Worker! Hypnotist! Electrician! Scientist! Performs the Feat of Passing over 10,000 Volts of Electricity Through his Body! The Sensation of the Century! Doctor Amazed! Scientists Puzzled!’. It is one of the many superb caricatures of Edwardian music hall performers that were drawn by the artist George Cooke and compiled in a series of albums.
Cooke described Hermann as a hypnotist, but on his posters Hermann advertised himself as ‘The Man Who Tamed Electricity’. A review of his performance reveals that a highlight of his act was performing ‘shock treatment’ on audience members with paralysis. Hermann was already a celebrity in the world of magic by February 1900, when a portrait of him was published in the magazine Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday.
