Wierd-Sisters; Ministers of Darkness; Minions of the Moon, 1791

Not on View

Medium

etching, engraving and aquatint printed in sepia on wove paper, with publisher's hand-coloring and inscriptions by Gillray

Dimensions

plate: 24.9 × 35.1 cm (9 13/16 × 13 13/16 in.)

sheet: 26.9 × 37.9 cm (10 9/16 × 14 15/16 in.)

Credit Line

Anonymous Gift

Catalogue Raisonné

Wright and Evans 1851, no. 68

Accession Number

2017.49.1

Artists / Makers

James Gillray (artist) British, 1757 - 1815

Hannah Humphrey (publisher) British, c.1745 - 1818

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

upper center in plate: To H: Fuzelli Esqr. this attempt in the Caricatura-Sublime, is respectfully dedicated; lower left in ink: 3: lower center in plate: WIERD-SISTERS; MINISTERS OF DARKNESS: MINIONS of the MOON." / "They should be Women!--and yet their beards forbit us to interpret--that they are so" --; lower right in plate: Pubs. Dec 23d 1791 / by H. Humphrey No. 18 Old Bond Street; upper right in pen and ink: The Th--; lower center, in pen and ink: Mr. Dundas Mr. Pitt Ld. Thurlow

Provenance

Melchet Court, Hampshire. (Andrew Edmunds Prints and Drawings, London); purchased 2017 by NGA.

Associated Names

Edmunds, Andrew

Exhibition History

2018: Sense of Humor: Caricature, Satire, and the Comical in Prints and Drawings from Leonardo to the Present, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2018 - 2019.

Bibliography

1851: Wright, Thomas and Robert H. Evans. Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray; Comprising a Political and Humorous History of the Latter Part of the Reign of George the Third. London, 1851. Reprint. NY: B. Blom, 1968: no. 68

1870: Stephens, Frederic George, and Mary Dorothy George, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. London, 1870: no. 7937