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

1791

James Gillray

Associated Names
James Gillray

Artist, British, 1757 - 1815

Hannah Humphrey

Publisher, British, c.1745 - 1818

The image shows the profiles of three individuals positioned closely together, gazing ahead. Each person has distinct facial features. The first person has a prominent nose and wears a patterned shawl, the second person has delicate features with rosy cheeks and gray hair styled backward, while the third person has a long, slender nose and thick eyebrows, with voluminous, curly hair and a beard. They wear cloaks. The background features a cloudy, moonlit sky with a large moon visible in the distance. The scene is set at night.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

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

  • Credit Line

    Anonymous Gift

  • 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.)

  • Accession Number

    2017.49.1

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Wright and Evans 1851, no. 68

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

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

Associated Names

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

Inscriptions

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

Wikidata ID

Q77258751

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