Despair (Le Brun Travested, or Caricatures of the Passions)

A brown-ink etching of two exaggerated caricatured figures. In the foreground a woman in a tall frilled cap stares with bulging eyes and a grimacing mouth, while a heavy-jawed man with a curled wig scowls beside her, his hand tucked at his waist. The caricature treats the passion of despair through exaggerated faces and gestures.

Look closer: The small printed caption below the figures reads that the heads are offered as proper subjects to represent the passions.

Artist

Thomas Rowlandson

Date

February 21, 1800

Medium

Etching, printed in brown ink

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2995 × 3671 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959