Ralph Steadman | Old Father William
One-colour screenprint debossed on Somerset Satin 300gsm paper
70 cm x 50 cm
Edition of 100 signed and numbered by the artist
£225
Ralph Steadman's direct and impulsive drawing style brought a new level of savagery to British cartooning in the 1960s, and has continued to have huge impact throughout his influential and extensive career. Perhaps now best known for his long term partnership with Hunter S. Thompson – whom he first collaborated with during a trip to the Kentucky Derby in 1970 – Lazarides Editions has ventured further down the rabbit hole of the artist's creative magic to edition a piece from his award winning 1967 illustrated version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.
Old Father William was the third in a series of four artworks featured in the book to illustrate the poem of the same title (recited by Alice at the command of the Caterpillar in chapter five, Advice From a Caterpillar) and depicts Old Father William demonstrating the "muscular strength" of his jaw:
"You are old," said the youth, "And your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak–
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."
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