The two men here are, on the left, an engraver (holding a burin, which is a sharp metal tool with which printmakers incised lines into copper printing plates) and on the right a painter (holding paintbrushes and a palette). Gillray was of course a printmaker, so he would have felt keenly for the plight of the engraver, who is shown being kept out of the 'charmed circle' by a painter.

Gillray is referring to the fact that, whereas painters were allowed all the honours of becoming Royal Academicians, they made sure that engravers were only offered a much lesser status, which the engravers found insulting; as a result most of them boycotted the Academy.