Drawing

This line drawn illustration was created for publication in a newspaper/illustrated magazine. It shows an unruly crowd of gentleman gathered in the interior of an unindentified theatre. The men appear to be standing and seated in one of the upper galleries as one of their number is leaning forward over the edge of the gallery, reaching desperately for the top hat which has fallen from his hand. Most of the gentlemen are on their feet, many of them shouting and waving their hats, and even umbrellas, in the air. The image is not signed and the theatre is not identified, but annotation on the rear indicates that it was created in 1886.

This item is one of several theatrical drawings from a collection of sketches commissioned from contemporary artists to be printed in illustrated magazines. The collection was donated to the museum by Sir William James Ingram in 1914.