The Drunkards

Category

Library Item

Item no

28463

Title

The Drunkards

Description

This graphic and satirical woodcut shows a group of men indulging in a night of heavy drinking. While the men round the table drink and joke, one in the foreground has fallen off his chair; he and his companion vomit onto the floor. None of these men notice that Death is present; on the right of the picture, a skeleton pours wine into one man's mouth with a gruesome and gleeful grin. The image is supposed to serve as a reminder of the foolishness of overindulgence, and of its futility in the face of Death. Since the drunkards don't notice the skeleton, the image also highlights the fact that Death is usually hidden and fate unknowable.

Artist / maker

Pseudo-Bewick

Date

1825

Size

6.7 x 5.4 cm

Type

Wood cut

Location

Art and Design Library

This woodcut is from a Dance of Death series published in 1825; it is one of many volumes in Central Library's Dance of Death Collection. The artist responsible for this set of cuts is unknown but is sometimes referred to as Pseudo- Bewick. The publisher, William Charlton Wright claimed that the cuts were by a 'Mr. Bewick', but the two known engravers of the period of this name, Thomas and John Bewick, categorically denied any involvement with Charlton Wright's venture. John Bewick had once completed a Dance of Death, but the blocks needed to duplicate the series were destroyed in a fire in 1803. In any case, the cuts of 1825 are stylistically very different to the Bewick brothers' works. Many commentators remarked upon their caricature-like quality; Francis Douce, the Dance of Death expert, called them 'absurdly modernised.'

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Related subjects

People > Body parts > Skeletons

Sport and leisure > Activities > Eating and drinking

Sport and leisure > Eating and drinking facilities > Inns

Sport and leisure > Eating and drinking facilities > Public houses

Sport and leisure > Eating and drinking facilities > Taverns

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