The Sot (The English Dance of Death, plate 12)
Original title: The Sot (The English Dance of Death, plate 12)
kurzbeschreibung
Thomas Rowlandson made this image in July 1814 for "The English Dance of Death": an etching worked over with aquatint and then colored by hand, showing a drunkard dragged along behind a cart by a skeleton. The caricature mixes comic touches with a warning about where drink leads.
Description
Up front, a bony figure pulls a cart in which a plainly intoxicated man sits. A woman in a pink dress and apron hurls a broom at the skeleton; behind her, villagers laugh from the doorway of a house. A dog and a few birds give the rural setting some life, rendered in soft pastel tones and natural light. Comedy and a grim allegory of death run into one another.
Context
Between 1814 and 1816 Rowlandson collaborated with the poet William Combe on "The English Dance of Death," with Combe writing the verses that accompany the pictures. The artist picked up the medieval dance of death and used it to mock the vices of his own day, drunkenness among them. The plates came out in individual parts and found a receptive British public.
Impact
The exaggerated figures and bright coloring make the sheet look comic at first; only the skeleton slips a reflective note underneath. Humor and morbidity set side by side produce an ambivalent mood — you smile and are reminded of mortality at the same time.
Technique
Etched lines fix the bold contours of the figures, while aquatint supplies soft gradations of tone. Foreground and background separate cleanly this way. The pastel coloring applied afterward strengthens the satirical character of the print.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)