The Wedding of Lismahago and Tabitha, an illustration from Tobias Smollett's "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker" (London, 1793), Vol. 1. 1793

Art Historical Context

This etching and engraving captures a lively scene from Tobias Smollett’s 1771 novel *The Expedition of Humphry Clinker*, specifically the wedding of the eccentric Scottish soldier Lieutenant Lismahago and the prim Welsh widow Tabitha Bramble. Created for a 1793 London edition, the print brings to life one of the book’s most humorous episodes, reflecting the era’s taste for illustrated fiction that made popular novels more accessible to a growing reading public. The work is attributed to a collaboration involving caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson, whose spirited line work often infused literary subjects with satirical energy, along with engravers James Sibbald and Charles Grignion I. Executed in the precise technique of etching and engraving, the small-scale print (just 4½ by 6⅜ inches) was well suited to book illustration, allowing fine detail to be reproduced affordably for multiple impressions. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in 1959 as part of the Elisha Whittelsey Collection, the sheet offers modern viewers a charming window into late-eighteenth-century British literary culture and the vibrant printmaking trade that supported it.

About the Artist

James Sibbald|Thomas Rowlandson|Charles Grignion, I (British, Scottish|British) · 1747 |1757 –1803 |1827

British, Whitlaw, Roxburghshire, Scotland 1747–1803 Edinburgh|British, London 1757–1827 London