'The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast': PD.120-1973.f.4

Materials used in production

Watercolour
Gold paint
Graphite
Gum arabic

Components of the work

Support composed of wove paper
Leaf Height 526 mm Width 366 mm

Techniques used in production

Watercolour : Watercolour and gum Arabic with gold over traces of graphite on wove paper

Inscription or legends present

• Text: THE / BUTTERFLY'S BALL / AND THE / GRASSHOPPER'S FEAST
• Location: Recto
• Method of creation: Watercolour, gold paint and graphite
• Type: Title

• Text: Come take up your Hats, and away let us haste, / To the Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast. / The Trumpeter, Gadfly, has summon'd the Crew. / And the Revels are now only waiting for you. / On the smooth shaven Grass, by the side of a Wood, / Beneath a broad Oak that for Ages had stood. / There the Children of Earth, and the Tenants of Air. / For an Evening's Amusement together repair. / And there came the Beetle, so blind and so black, / Who carried the Emmet, his Friend, on his back. / And there was the Gnat and the Dragonfly too. / With all their Relations, Green, Orange, and Blue.
• Location: Recto, below the above
• Method of creation: Brown ink

Identification numbers

Accession number: PD.120-1973.f.4
Primary reference Number: 80494
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 3 August 2020 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints