Gulliver bound by the Lilliputians [?]

Gulliver bound by the Lilliputians [?]
Gulliver bound by the Lilliputians [?]
Gulliver bound by the Lilliputians [?]
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Gulliver bound by the Lilliputians [?]
Date
c.1753 (undated)
Medium
Graphite on medium, blue laid paper with rough texture mounted on moderately thick, moderately textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions
Metric: 129 x 198 mm
Imperial: 5 1/16 x 7 13/16 in.
Accession Number
B1975.4.806
Wilson Online Reference
D96
Description
View of a seashore with a gigantic naked figure lying in the right foreground, surrounded by miniature people
Provenance
Purchased 1975
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; inscribed in graphite lower centre: 'Gulliver in Lilliput'
Subject
It has been suggested that Wilson's inspiration for this curious composition came from Swift's Gulliver's Travels or alternatively the description by the ancient author Philostratus (Imagines, II, 22) of Hercules among the Pygmies (see Bibliography, J. K. Welcher & R. Joseph and R. Halsband respectively).
Related Drawings
D53/13Studies and Designs done in Rome in the Year 1752, p. 13, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Related Prints
E60/8 John Whessell after Wilson, Studies & Designs: View of a Seashore with a naked Figure lying in the right Foreground, The British Museum
E60/8A John Whessell after Wilson, Studies & Designs: View of a Seashore with a naked Giant lying in the right Foreground, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
Critical commentary
The political satire, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift was first published in 1726 with the title, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships. Immediately popular, it was amended in 1735 and remained a universal favourite throughout the 18th century and beyond. D53/13 may illustrate Part 1, describing Gulliver's first voyage, when he is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself the prisoner of a race of tiny people, less than 6 inches tall, who are inhabitants of the island country of Lilliput. Alternatively the subject may be the classical one of Hercules among the Pygmies, which would accord witrh Wilson's known familiarity with ancient authors and explain the gigantic figure's apparent nudity.
Previous Cat/Ref Nos
Object ID: 12662
Bibliography
Solkin 1982, pp. 152, 157; J.K. Welcher & R. Joseph, 'Gulliverian Drawings by Richard Wilson' Eighteenth Century Studies, vol. 18, no. 2 (Winter, 1984-1985) pp. 170-85; R. Halsband, 'Comments on "Gulliverian Drawings by Richard Wilson"', Eighteenth Century Studies, vol. 19, no. 2 (Winter, 1985-1986), pp. 254-256.
Condition/Conservation
Dimensions of mount: 175 x 244 mm (6 7/8 x 9 5/8 in.)
Updated by Compiler
2016-02-19 00:00:00