‘Hard Times or O! Dear What Will Become of Us O! Dear What Shall We Do?!!!!!’, 1814

Description

Mounted hand coloured etching entitled ‘HARD TIMES or, O!Dear what will become of us O! Dear what shall we do?!!!!!’, drawn and etched by George Cruikshank, and published by Thomas Tegg in 1814.

During times of hardship it was traditional for the unemployed to march beneath trade banners to seek work. Here, following the gardeners are two Apothecaries, under their standard of a mortar on a skull, one tall and thin, carrying a medicine bottle labelled “To be well shaken when taken”, the other short and fat with a clyster bulging from his pocket.

Both are dressed in professional grey, and carry canes, the tops of which they sniff superciliously. A paper on their standard reads “The Humble Petition of the Poor Apothecaries S[—] That they are all starving!!”.

On the artists’ standard is a palette and brushes with; “Mr. Wests speech on the gloomy state of the Arts”, and Quill pens lettered; “Rejected MSS”. Cruikshank included a self-portrait among the artists with the inscription “Poor Shanks fect” b