Pirate and Gypsy
Description:
A young man, seated with a long rifle on a rock, wears a dark jacket and light trousers. A horn is strung around his neck and a brimmed hat lies at his side. He is addressed by a woman with a large staff who is dressed in a long patterned skirt and a long dark cloak. With her right hand she points to the sky. The two figures occupy a rocky, coastal landscape with sparse vegetation, populated by birds.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Primary Works:
Dissertation on the Gipseys (London, 1807)
Accession Number:
Thordarson T 1836
Height (in centimeters):
11
Width (in centimeters):
8
Printing Context
This image is the frontispiece in Dissertation on the Gipseys: representing their manner of life, family economy, occupations & trades, marriages & education, sickness, death & burial, religion, language, science & arts. &c &c: with an historical enquiry concerning their origin & first appearances in Europe, by Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb Grellmann (London, 1807).Associated Events
1744 Vagrancy ActAssociated Texts
This image was possibly rendered after a painting by Richard Corbould (1757-1831) or by one of his sons, either Henry Corbould (1787-1844) or George Corbould (1786-1846). Richard Corbould married Charlotte Heath, a daughter of the Heath family of engravers; their eldest son, George, was apprenticed with James Heath (Peltz).Subject
This image depicts the encounter between a pirate and a gypsy, emphasizing their common status as nomadic outcasts at once romanticized and rejected by society.Theme
Sailor. Pirate. Gypsy. Prophecy. Walking.Significance
The publishers seem to have appropriated this image from another context for inclusion in Grellmann’s book, and thus its relationship to the text seems somewhat tenuous. However, the juxtaposition of two wandering figures, an archetypal nomad of the sea and an archetypal nomad of the land, suggests the association of gypsies and pirates in the English imagination. Here, the gypsy woman makes a prophetic gesture and leans on a tall staff in an iconic pose that would be much repeated later in the century. We see just such a stance taken by Meg Merrilies, the gypsy prophet, in the illustrations for Sir Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering (1815), as well as in the plates of Terry’s theatrical production of the novel, such as the colored stipple engraving of Sarah Egerton as Meg Merrilies by James Thomson (after Samuel De Wilde) held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.Bibliography
Grellmann, Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb. Dissertation on the Gipseys. London: William Ballintine, 1807. Print.Long Title
"Pirate and Gypsy" 1807Featured in Exhibit:
Engraver:
Image Date:
1807
