‘The Blue Devils!’, 1795

Description

Mounted hand coloured etching and aquatint, entitled ‘THE BLUE DEVILS!’, designed and etched by Richard Newton, and published by William Holland in 1795.

An invalid, wearing a nightshirt, sits in an armchair in front of his curtained bed. He looks terrified at the sight of seven small and completely naked demons (except for one wearing thigh boots), who dance around him hand in hand in a circle. On a table are a half empty medicine bottle and a book entitled: “Essay on the Power of Imagination”.