The Rehearsal or the Baron and the Elephant

George Cruikshank|M. [or W. N.] Jones|Richard Brinsley Sheridan|Baron Ferdinand de Geramb|William Shakespeare|John Philip Kemble|Sarah Siddons

January 1, 1812 · Hand-colored etching · Drawings and Prints

Cruikshank was nineteen when he etched this pseudo-oriental procession parodying recent spectacles on the London stage. A month before, Covent Garden’s annual Christmas pantomime had featured a live elephant and the artist holds actor-manager John Kemble responsible for sacrificing traditional drama to profit. Perched on the offending pachyderm, Kemble catches coins while discarding a cloak that symbolizes his reputation as a tragic actor. The elephant advertises The Murder of Shakespeare and shakes a figure symbolizing old-fashioned Comedy with his trunk. The action played out before the elephant parodies an amateur performance by Robert Coates at the Haymarket. Coates used the occasion to insult prominent audience member, the Baron de Geramb who is shown perched on the elephant’s trunk, while Coates rides a golden cockerel.

Artist

George Cruikshank|M. [or W. N.] Jones|Richard Brinsley Sheridan|Baron Ferdinand de Geramb|William Shakespeare|John Philip Kemble|Sarah Siddons

Date

January 1, 1812

Medium

Hand-colored etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917