Daniel Gardner, British
“I Had To Improvise a Bit With This Year’s Witches’ Brew, Ladies. Whole Foods Ran Out of Pumpkin Spice Eye of Newt,” 1775
Gouache and chalk on paper
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Info, or links that point to more info (especially the last here link), about this artist can be found here, here, here, here (can be read in full for free on Fridays), here, and here, perhaps in addition to what's in his Wikipedia page.
/// Surprisingly monochromatic,
this painting is idiomatic.
Shown as three Macbeth witches,
these are women with riches—
aristocrats, yet charismatic.
/// And yet, witches? I have to suggest
that they don’t seem by evil possessed.
Ten hags short of a coven
at their brass cauldron-oven.
Should be “sky-clad;” they’re waaay overdressed.
/// Cauldron contents boil over a fire.
Can’t get newt or frog from their supplier.
So they toss in some seeds
and some odd bluish weeds
as the smallest one hangs from a wire.
/// There’s no sign of a broom or black cat.
One witch wears a traditional hat.
She won’t let it obscure
her expensive coiffure,
but she is dressed in black, so there’s that…
/// At first glance I had not noticed that
at the lower left there is a cat.
So I missed it. Not tragic.
It appeared, though, by magic.
Can’t now know what next will be begat.
/// Their Grimalkin’s done more than they knew
to add elements key to the brew.
Many hairballs were coughed
and when vermin were offed
she had dropped in a dead mouse or two.
/// On the left is Elizabeth Lamb.
“The Vicountess Melbourne’s who I am.”
She commissioned this art.
As Whigs, each played her part.
We can see, like her friends, she’s a ham.
/// Georgiana is next to admire.
Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.
In the middle she’s shown.
For her beauty, well-known;
to her fame others only aspire.
/// Lastly, Anne Seymour Damer is third.
She’s not titled, but people had heard
of the sculptures she’d done.
Anne’s the “witchiest” one.
(That their costumes don’t match is absurd.)
/// Both the Duchess and Vicountess wore
silky gowns never modeled before,
while the non-noble donned,
(with her witch hat and wand),
something bought at a Halloween Store.