Tales of Wonder! Possibly 1802

Curator: It gives me a spooky sort of giggle, seeing this gathering! Something wicked this way comes? Editor: Indeed! What we’re looking at is "Tales of Wonder!", a print, with etching, drawing, and watercolor details, possibly from 1802, by James Gillray. It resides here at the Art Institute of Chicago. Curator: The lighting, just that single candle, throws such heavy shadows, you can almost hear the ghost stories, the crackling fireplace adds so much. There's something performative in those exaggerated reactions, you know? Almost a dark play happening. Editor: Right, and Gillray's a master of exaggeration. Look at the way he’s rendering these figures, bordering on caricature. Notice the central woman. She embodies both the grotesque and the familiar— a kind of protective yet menacing matriarch, doesn’t she remind you of an imposing family portrait? She evokes an interesting sense of both threat and protection. Curator: Absolutely. This is deeply embedded in Romantic sensibilities, with its celebration of heightened emotion and even a delicious touch of the macabre. The dedication, a written script "This attempt to describe the effects of the Sublime & Wonderful, is dedicated to M. G. Lewis Esq.r M.P," is to a writer of gothic novels. There’s a definite connection being made between visual and literary thrills here. And is it me, or are the ladies actively trying to invoke a presence from another realm? Their intense anticipation speaks volumes! Editor: It really pulls you in! The theatrical quality, it suggests that wonder and fear, the sublime, are actually being performed and consumed. Gillray's showing us the thrill of experiencing something sensational. Is it a comment on society's hunger for the extraordinary? Or just a good laugh at people being silly? Curator: Or, maybe, something else. I can’t shake the image of cultural anxieties bubbling up here, playing with the borders of the seen and unseen, making visible things we thought safely contained. It makes one consider how we visually police and create “reality.” Editor: Right, maybe those “tales of wonder” also point to a shared, agreed-upon reality starting to fall apart. Well, that's given me a new perspective on cosy winter evenings! Curator: And for me, new insights into what lurks beneath the surface of even the most domestic scene. Thank you for the shivers!