The Reviewers' Cave

1765

Not on view

Mortimer's dynamic early pen-work is used here to develop a frontispiece for Lloyd Evans's "The Powers of the Pen: A Poem" (1768), a verse satire aimed at literary critics. The artist also etched the related print, and mined Alexander Pope’s "Dunciad" and "Rape of the Lock" for suitable imagery, with the rocky setting suggested by the latter's "Cave of Spleen." The drawing consists of two sections, with judges seated at right, one in the front row resembling Samuel Johnson, whose pomposity Evans lampoons. As workers bring in bushel baskets of books to be reviewed, a corpulent figure on a dais presides over an assemblage that includes a braying donkey. Above, Dullness lolls on clouds near flayed faces, or masks, hung from cords. At left, Mortimer sketched ideas for the main design. His rare working drawing engages with a distinct British type of visual satire that combines allegory, caricature and visual-verbal punning, a mode that Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray would take up in the 1780s.

Artwork Details

Title: The Reviewers' Cave
Artist: John Hamilton Mortimer (British, Eastbourne 1740–1779 London)
Date: 1765
Medium: Pen and gray ink
Dimensions: Sheet: 11 7/16 × 14 1/4 in. (29 × 36.2 cm)
Mount: 15 1/4 × 19 5/8 in. (38.7 × 49.8 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2018
Object Number: 2018.49
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By John Hamilton Mortimer

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Banditti Taking His Post, John Hamilton Mortimer British, Etching — Banditti Taking His Post
John Hamilton Mortimer
late 18th century

Banditti in a mountainous landscape, John Hamilton Mortimer British, Pen and black ink — Banditti in a mountainous landscape
John Hamilton Mortimer
1770–79

Lucretia's Dead Body is Carried by her Husband, Led by her Mourning Father, John Hamilton Mortimer British, Pen and ink over traces of graphite or chalk — Lucretia's Dead Body is Carried by her Husband, Led by her Mourning Father
John Hamilton Mortimer
1770–79 (?)

Bardolph, from "Twelve Characters from Shakespeare", John Hamilton Mortimer British, Etching — Bardolph, from "Twelve Characters from Shakespeare"
John Hamilton Mortimer
William Shakespeare
May 20, 1775

Shylock, from "Twelve Characters from Shakespeare", John Hamilton Mortimer British, Etching — Shylock, from "Twelve Characters from Shakespeare"
John Hamilton Mortimer
William Shakespeare
March 15, 1776

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