Polinario & the Bishop of Jaen from Rambles in the Footsteps of Don Quixote by Henry D. Inglis
George Cruikshank
British, 1792–1878
1837
A small etching by George Cruikshank that stages a comic encounter from Inglis’s Don Quixote–inspired travelogue, using closely observed detail and satire to bring the story to life.
Set as a tiny vignette in a wide white field, the scene grabs you with fine, economical lines—a kneeling figure beside a horse‑drawn carriage, riders looking on, and a sheltered woman framed against a roiling cloud—so that the modest image feels both intimate and theatrically staged.
This print exemplifies the 19th‑century rise of the illustrated book and Cruikshank’s role in shaping popular reading: his witty, narrative engravings translated literary episodes into vivid, widely consumed visual stories.
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
plate: 7 15/16 × 4 15/16" (20.1 × 12.5 cm); sheet: 11 13/16 × 8 11/16" (30 × 22 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
770.1964.3
Palette
Exhibitions
