George Cruikshank (British 1792-1878)

The Worship of Bacchus

etching, 1865, after the original oil painting held at the Tate Gallery in London, signed  and annotated "First Proof' in pencil.     22 x 39"

In his words, Bacchus, "is intended to show how universally the intoxicating drinks are used upon every occasion in life, from the cradle to the grave".  In his "Introductory Remarks" included in the Key to this piece, Cruikshank writes that "In strong drink, and I may look back to my earliest productions, when I endeavored to check the progress of the evils arising from intoxication, and it is indeed upwards of half a century since I first began to use my humble abilities with pencil and pen against the vice of drunkenness, and in the vain attempt to shut up drinking shops, and to establish moderate drinking as a universal rule, and I now sincerely regret that it is only seventeen years since I first discovered that 'teetotalism', or the totally abstaining from all intoxicating liquors, is the only real remedy for  the entire abolition of intemperance and drunkenness.