James Gillray

October 29, 2004 - January 29, 2005

Images

   
"Midas, Transmuting all into Gold [“Gold” crossed out] Paper." Etching, hand-colored, 1797. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Collection of Art, Prints and Photographs.

A shortage of gold and a run on the Bank of England, triggered by the attempted French invasion of Ireland, and mounting war costs, led William Pitt (pictured with doney's ears) to suspend cash payments and substitute paper money. 		  "The King of Brobdingnag, and Gulliver." Etching and aquatint with engraving, hand-colored, 1803. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Collection of Art, Prints and Photographs.

This print, after a sketch by an amateur artist, pokes fun at Napoleon’s size and his abrasive, belligerent personality, while trivializing the threat of war. 		 
       
   
"The first Kiss this Ten Years! – or – the meeting of Britannia & Citizen François." Etching, aquatint, and roulette, with additional scoring of the plate, hand-colored, 1803. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.

The Treaty of Paris was signed in March 1802. However, Napoleon continued his territorial expansion, annexing Piedmont, Elba, Parma, and Switzerland, justifying Gillray’s cynical view of the treaty.		   "The Plumb-pudding in danger; – or – State Epicures taking un Petit Souper." Etching with engraving, 1805. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.

On January 2, 1805, in a peace overture to George III, Napoleon questioned the need for war: “The world is sufficiently large for our two nations to live in it.” In Gillray's etching, England and France take generous helpings of Europe. 		 
       
   
"Uncorking Old-Sherry – "
Etching with engraving, hand-colored, 1805.Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.

In this print, Gillray shows William Pitt responding to a speech by Richard Brinsley Sheridan attacking Pitt’s motion to overhaul the Army’s recruiting policy. Pitt reportedly replied: “The Hon. gentleman seldom condescends to favour us with a display of his extraordinary powers of imagination and of fancy; but when he does, … like a bottle just uncorked, bursts all at once into an explosion of froth and air….” Here Pitt uncorks the Sheridan bottle, which spews forth “invectives, stolen jests, lame puns, dramatic ravings, and fibs.”		   "The Zenith of French Glory; – The Pinnacle of Liberty...." Etching with engraving, hand-colored, 1793. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.

Louis XVI was guillotined on January 21, 1793, and Gillray “for the public good” offers his own imaginary “eye-witness” account. A bony revolutionary fiddles like Nero from atop a lamppost. In the background a church dome burns, as the guillotine blade descends on the King’s neck. The bodies of a bishop, two monks, and a judge hang from lamp brackets, as the enthusiastic mob cheer the regicide and, by implication, the destruction of legal and spiritual authority.