James Gillray2001
The Art of Caricature
by Richard Godfrey
"James Gillray (1756-1815) was the leading caricaturist of the late eighteenth century, and an artist of outstanding inventiveness and originality whose work continues to influence cartoons today. He lived through a traumatic period in British and European history, and his art provides some of the most memorable images of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the raging political scene of the time, as well as penetrating charcterisations of famous individuals including George III and Queen Charlotte, Napoleon, Emma Hamilton, William Pitt and Charles Fox. Gillray also brilliantly ridiculed the pretensions and foibles of contemporary society, a world of fashionable excess and sexual intrigue, corruption and royal scandals. Although firmly grounded in the realities of his time, the...