Saturday, February 7, 2015

Print of the Day: Theatrical Leap Frog, 1804




Theatrical Leap Frog
Print, hand-colored, 1804
The Victoria  & Albert Museum




This hand-colored engraving entitled "Theatrical Leap Frog" is a caricature of the child actor Master Betty leaping over John Philip Kemble--a famed English actor of the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries.  It was published in London by Rudolph Ackerman (1765-1834).

It represents the growing popularity of novelty acts as they surpassed legitimate drama in fashion.  The original was drawn by Thomas Rowlandson.



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