The Worship of Bacchus

At the age of 55, the prolific illustrator and social satirist George Cruikshank gave up drinking and became a leading figure in the Temperance movement. As part of his campaign to dry out Britain, he produced an enormous—more than 7 x 13 feet—painting cum manifesto, The Worship of Bacchus (1860-62). He also reproduced the image in this large engraving measuring roughly 2 x 3 feet. The image catalogues the sorry fate—the house of correction, the hospital, the workhouse, the jail, or the lunatic asylum—that awaits even those who innocently taste a drop and thereby enter the wicked realm of Bacchus, who stands triumphantly over the depravity. The present impression of the print is a rare proof before the final inscriptions and bears a large pencil signature in Cruikshank's hand.