Live Auction 13731Brian Sewell - Critic & Collector
Circle of Daniel Maclise, R.A. (Cork 1806-1870 London)
Lot 82

Circle of Daniel Maclise, R.A. (Cork 1806-1870 London)

Illustration for 'An Essay on the Principle of Population'

Closed27 September 2016

Price Realised

GBP 5,625

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Circle of Daniel Maclise, R.A. (Cork 1806-1870 London)
Illustration for 'An Essay on the Principle of Population'
variously inscribed (throughout)
pencil, pen and brown ink, brown and grey wash heightened with white and with oil paint, unframed
9 5/8 x 15 in. (24.3 x 38 cm.); and attributed to The Master of the Giants, Caliban: 'I must eat my dinner' Tempest Act I, Scene 2, inscribed as title (lower left), pencil, pen and brown ink, grey and blue wash, 12 ¼ x 10 ¼ in. (31.1 x 26 cm.); and English School, Macbeth: the Three Witches hovering over the cauldron in the cave. Act IV, Scene 1, pen and grey ink and watercolour, 8 7/8 x 7 in. (22.6 x 17.8 cm.)
(3)

Specialist note

Thomas Robert Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle of Population was first published anonymously in 1798, predicting a dark future in which the population would double every 25 years while food production would not keep up, resulting in famine and starvation. The present drawing refers to this famous text, which was revised and reissued regularly until 1830, and seems to portray the kind of dark, dystopian future Malthus predicted.