File:Puzzled which to Choose!! or The King of Tombuctoo offering one of his daughters in marriage to Capt. - (anticipated result of a African Mission) RMG E9938.tiff
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Captions
Summary edit
Author |
G. Humphrey; George Cruikshank; after Captain E. Judel |
Description |
English: Puzzled which to Choose!! or The King of Tombuctoo offering one of his daughters in marriage to Capt. - [anticipated result of a African Mission] The mission anticipated in Cruikshank’s caricature was the African Association’s trans-Sahara expedition of 1818–20, which sought, unsuccessfully, to reach central Africa from the north. The naval captain is Frederick Marryat (1792–1848), who was meant to accompany the expedition leader, Joseph Ritchie (c.1788–1819). Marryat, a friend of Cruikshank’s with whom he collaborated, was indisposed and Captain George Francis Lyon (1795–1832) volunteered for the position in Malta, where he met Ritchie by chance. The expedition started at Tripoli in November 1818 but was greatly delayed and very poorly organized. Ritchie died in November 1819 as a result of illness and the effects of heat; Lyon took command and returned to Tripoli in March 1820. He later described and illustrated the mission in his A narrative of travels in Northern Africa (1821). Cruikshank’s image is full of racial stereotypes and heightened cultural differences. Resplendent in his blue naval uniform, Marryat stands as an exemplar of propriety and European civilisation. He bows before the squatting king, who has a large ring through his nose and, ludicrously, sports a large sword through his ear. The king’s daughters, depicted as versions of the Hottentot Venus with grotesquely exaggerated features, adopt the pose of the three graces with mock coyness. In the background, uniformed British officers and sailors, their sensibilities both shocked and amused, view the scene watched by a crowd of African men, again with absurdly distorted faces. Cruikshank completes this uncomfortable satirical tour de force by implying cannibalism with human skulls on the spears of the king’s bodyguards. The basic format was repeated in his 'Probable effects of over female emigration...' (Cat.558), which shows a bemused crowd of British men confronted by a group of leering black women.
Caricature with publisher's colouring. Published by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James's Street, October 10, 1818. Part of the Michael Graham-Stewart Slavery Collection. |
Date |
1818 date QS:P571,+1818-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 |
Dimensions | Sheet: 273 mm x 378 mm; Image: 226 mm x 336 mm; Mount: 560 mm x 406 mm |
Source/Photographer | http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/255155 |
Permission (Reusing this file) |
The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose. The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright. |
Other versions |
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Identifier InfoField | id number: ZBA2511 undefined: PR15 |
Collection InfoField | Fine art |
Licensing edit
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
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This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details. |
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current | 02:59, 18 September 2017 | 3,800 × 3,000 (32.62 MB) | Fæ (talk | contribs) | Royal Museums Greenwich Fine art (1818), http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/255155 #1799 |
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- File:Puzzled which to Choose!! or The King of Tombuctoo offering one of his daughters in marriage to Capt. - (anticipated result of a African Mission) RMG E9113.tiff
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