Cartoon 'Adventures of Romeo Ropeyarn', drawn by Edwin Landseer Grundy
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Object number2024.00014.01
TitleCartoon 'Adventures of Romeo Ropeyarn', drawn by Edwin Landseer Grundy
Creator Edwin Landseer Grundy (artist)
DescriptionCartoon titled 'Adventures of Romeo Ropeyarn', drawn in ink on blue paper by Edwin Landseer Grundy. The cartoon consist of a storyboard with 18 individual drawings with the story written underneath each drawing.
The cartoon tells the story of a seaman who goes ashore in Melbourne and gets drunk in an inn. He decides to try the gold diggings, but only narrowly escapes the police who are looking for seamen who have deserted their ships. He finds employment with a butcher, but doesn't get on with him and makes his way to the gold fields where various misfortunes occur. He ends up working in a kitchen where he begins a relationship with the cook. Soon restless again, he leaves the cook behind and returns to England on his old ship, no better off than he was at the beginning of the story.
The document was removed from a scrapbook which was compiled by Edwin Landseer Grundy and contained many of his own drawings and sketches. Grundy was an apprentice on board the SS Great Britain as well as the Royal Charter in the 1850s and must have drawn on his experiences at sea for the story of this cartoon. He sailed to Australia on at least one of these vessels, if not both. The document is undated, but several other items from the same scrapbook carry dates in the late 1850s.
Production date approx 1850 - approx 1860
Object nameink drawing
Object categoryvisual art
Techniqueprinted, drawn, hand-written
Dimensions
- height: 332 mm
width: 200 mm