3196 – Witch cutting herbs: Blue woman cutting herbs at night

Physical description:
A large reproduction painting showing a kneeling woman at night cutting herbs. The painting is mostly blue and white. Original painting featured in the Museum's first ever temporary exhibition "Witches and Witchlore: the illustrations of Jos A Smith."
Museum classification:
Goddess
Size:
52cm x 58cm
Information:
The original painting was created for the book "Witches" which was a collaboration between Erica Jong and Jos A Smith. It was used to illustrate pages 151-152 of the hardback edition. The section had the title "The Gathering of Herbs". The following is a quote from this page: "Witches gathered their herbs under cover of night, not only for reasons of self concealment, but because they believed that plants had to be plucked during specific phases of the moon in order to yield their powers most efficaciously...Often the witch had to be naked or skyclad for the gathering."
Resource:
Object
Materials:
Paper
Copyright ownership:
Jos A Smith
The original painting was created for the book "Witches" which was a collaboration between Erica Jong and Jos A Smith. It was used to illustrate pages 151-152 of the hardback edition. The section had the title "The Gathering of Herbs". The following is a quote from this page: "Witches gathered their herbs under cover of night, not only for reasons of self concealment, but because they believed that plants had to be plucked during specific phases of the moon in order to yield their powers most efficaciously...Often the witch had to be naked or skyclad for the gathering."