- Museum number
- 2014,7018.5
- Description
-
'Stately plump Buck Mulligan'; illustration for James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. 1948
Watercolour, pen and ink on paper
- Production date
- 1948
- Dimensions
-
Height: 578 millimetres
-
Width: 397 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Text from Stephen Coppel, 'Imaging Ulysses: Richard Hamilton', London, BM, published by the British Council, 2002, cat.no.6:
Hamilton's title is taken from the opening words of Ulysses: 'Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: -Introibo ad altare Dei' (U, 3). Mulligan's mocking invocation to God is the first utterance in Ulysses; these are also the first words spoken by the priest at the beginning of the Latin mass. In his pictorial correlative Hamilton presents Mulligan giving his mock blessing directly to the viewer. Hamilton's finished watercolour follows the visual clues offered by Joyce's description of Mulligan's yellow dressing gown and 'fair oakpale hair' (U, 5); Mulligan's epithet of 'the snotgreen sea' (U, 5) is also visualized.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1978, Bielefeld, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 'Richard Hamilton: Studies - Studien 1937-1977', fig.2, reprod. p.15
1988, Derry, Orchard Gallery, 'Richard Hamilton: Work in Progress on Illustrations for James Joyce's Ulysses', no.6, reprod. p.17
2001, 10 June-16 Sept, Ljubljana, Cankarjev Dom Galerija, 'Imaging Ulysses', no.6
2001-2002, 10 Nov-13 Jan, Tübingen, Kunsthalle Tübingen, 'Imaging Ulysses', no.6
2002, 2 Feb-19 May, London, British Museum, 'Imaging Ulysses', no.6, reprod. p.107
2002, 13 June-15 Sept, Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 'Imaging Ulysses', no.6
2003, 10 May-31 Aug, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 'Imaging Ulysses', no.6
2014, 16 June-31 Aug, London, BM, 'Hamilton's Ulysses', Room 90 Michelangelo-end display (no.cat.)
2018-2019, Oct 4 – 27 Jan, London, BM G90, Recent Acquisitions: Gozzoli to Kara Walker
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Ulysses
- Acquisition date
- 2014
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2014,7018.5