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Artist/Maker
Thomas Nast
(American, born Germany, 1840 - 1902)
Datepublished April 27, 1872
MediumWood engraving on newsprint
DimensionsComposition: 10 × 9 in. (25.4 × 22.9 cm)
Sheet: 15 15/16 × 11 3/16 in. (40.5 × 28.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Professor Emeritus Jay Williams, Class of 1954
Object number2019.13.177
Not on view
DescriptionCaptioned "U. S. G. 'Will you play upon this pipe?' / C. S. 'My lord, I can not.' / U. S. G. ''Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, / give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these / are the stops.' / C. S. 'But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony; I have not the skill.' / U. S. G. 'Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play / upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; / you would sound me from my lowest note to the tip of my compass: and there is much music, / excellent voice, in this little organ; yet can not you make it speak. Why, do you think, I / am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret / me, you can not play upon me': Hamlet, Act III., Scene II" typeset beneath title in black ink.
Collections
Additional Details
Provenance
2019: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by gift of Jay G. Williams.
Signature
Signed "Th Nast" in block at lower left composition.
Inscribed
Title typeset beneath image in black ink. Publisher banner headline typeset above image in black ink: "Harper's Weekly / Journal of Civilization / Vol. XVL.-No. 800: New York, Saturday, April 27, 1872." Incription at top of sheet above banner headline, "[illegible]" in pencil.
Thomas Nast
Date: published November 28, 1874
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.262
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Date: published April 10, 1875
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.279
Thomas Nast
Date: published October 12, 1872
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.207
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.9
Thomas Nast
Date: published June 27, 1874
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.245
Thomas Nast
Date: published March 20, 1875
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.276
Yashua Klos
Date: 2022
Medium: Woodblock print on muslin and oil-based, relief block ink on canvas, acrylic, spray paint, Japanese rice paper, mounted on drop cloth
Object number: 2022.4
Thomas Nast
Date: published August 19, 1871
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.138
Jamea Richmond-Edwards
Date: 2018
Medium: Pigment print with silkscreen diamond dust and gold foil
Object number: 2020.1
Thomas Nast
Date: published November 8, 1873
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.221
Raven Chacon
Date: 2020
Medium: Lithograph
Object number: 2021.8.1.10