Father Proposes to Lose the Children . . . from: The Story of Tom Thumb

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Father Proposes to Lose the Children . . . from: The Story of Tom Thumb

Artist George Cruikshank I (British, 1792-1878)

Date19th Century

Dimensionsimage: 6 1/2 x 4 7/8 in. (16.5 x 12.4 cm)

MediumEtching

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Florence Scott Libbey

Object number

1938.111

Not on View

Label TextFather Proposes to Lose the Children!!! The Giant Ogre Discovers Hop-O’-My-Thumb and His Brothers… The Giant Ogre in his Seven-League Boots… The Giant Ogre Falls Asleep Hop-O’-My-Thumb Leads His Brothers Out of the Wood Hop-O’-My-Thumb Presenting the Seven-League Boots to the King The brilliant visual satirist George Cruikshank published more than 6,000 graphic works, though he was most known during his lifetime for his book illustrations for popular authors of the day. His artwork included caricatures, social and political satires, pamphlets, drawings, and self-published books. He was self-educated and self-trained as an artist and had a strong and idiosyncratic personality. Later in life he became involved in the Temperance Movement, after which his art became even more focused on social reform. In the mid-1800s Cruikshank rewrote four fairy tales—“Cinderella and the Glass Slipper,” “The History of Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Puss-in-Boots,” and “Hop-O’-My-Thumb and the Seven-League Boots”—and published them with his illustrations in George Cruikshank’s Fairy Library. “Hop-O’-My-Thumb” was originally told by the French author Charles Perrault (1628–1703) in his Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals, subtitled, Tales of Mother Goose. In this fairytale the youngest of seven brothers from a poor woodcutter’s family uses his superior wisdom to keep his siblings safe from an ogre with unusual footwear.Exhibition HistoryTMA, Storytelling in Miniature, October 7, 2011-March 4, 2012.