On a windswept heath, three witches prophesy to an aghast Daniel O' Connell. Coloured lithograph by h.b. (unknown artist), 1843.

Date:
26 July 1843
Reference:
36365i
Part of:
HB sketches
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About this work

Also known as

Previous title, replaced May 2022: Jonah thrown overboard to appease the storm.
Previous title, replaced April 2022: The First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Minto, is thrown overboard by Lord Melbourne, Lord Palmerston and Lord Duncannon during a storm. Coloured lithograph by H.B. (John Doyle), 1838.

Description

The three witches, from Shakespeare's tragic play Macbeth, stand in profile and say "Dan - thou shalt be king hereafter". Compositionally they are derived from Henry Fuseli's painting of the three witches or James Gillray's etching "Wierd-sisters ministers of darkness; minions of the moon", 1791. In 1843 O'Connell was holding meetings to promote the repeal of the Acts of Union, 1800, and to re-establish the Irish Parliament and the Kingdom of Ireland: the witches predict that, like Macbeth, he would try to seize the throne

Publication/Creation

London : T. McLean, 26 July 1843 [London] (70 Saint Martin's lane : General Lithographic Establishment)

Physical description

1 print : lithograph, with watercolour ; image 24 x 33.7 cm + album.

Lettering

Macbeth the thane of Derrynane! h.b. Extensive dialogue within the print

Notes

The title has been taken from wording on the object.

Creator/production credits

Previously attributed to John Doyle (1797-1868), known as HB. It is by one of the imitators of Doyle, using the signature h.b. (in lower case). "Almost at once the Sketches [of John Doyle] were imitated. HB portraits like those of Gillray and Dighton became much-copied stereotypes of politicians. Seymour in particular became an imitator in the earliest lithographs for The looking glass. The imitators adopt some initials as much like HB as possible. In this volume there is an IB or JB clearly intended to pass as HB, though the draughtsman was unequal to the deception. Henry Heath was another imitator, and signs himself HH. 'We may observe', said The times in November 1836, 'that the extensive and merited success of HB has produced a herd of clumsy imitators.'. Later there were also 'Philo HB', BH (Bob Hamerton), hB. And there were the forgers who produced the spurious copies denounced by McLean"—Dorothy George, loc. cit

References note

M. Dorothy George, Catalogue of political and personal satires … in the British Museum, vol. XI, London 1954, p.xlvii (imitators of HB)

Reference

Wellcome Collection 36365i

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