James Gillray (1756-1815)
Caricature printmaker and engraver.
Gillray was born in London to a Scottish father, a follower of the Moravian religious sect who pursued an austere, moralising lifestyle. He was apprenticed to a commercial engraver, Harry Ashby (1744-1818). In the late 1770s he started producing original satirical etchings for the print publisher William Humphrey (?1742-1814), while also studying at the Royal Academy drawing schools.
During the 1780s Gillray tried to establish himself as a reproductive engraver, but much greater success came with his political caricatures. He became the most acclaimed satirical artist of his day, working for a range of London publishers. In 1791 he began to work exclusively, and extensively, for the printseller Hannah Humphrey (c.1745-1822). His caricatures combined acidic wit with an expert technique and drawing style. While caricature printmaking had been a largely anonymous affair in the past, Gillray's name became famous, and his designs were collected and admired in Britain and abroad. However, as an engraver and as a comic artist, he never achieved official recognition in an art world dominated by high-minded oil painters. His satires on the London’s cultural scene are full of bitterness, and his use of a ‘Caricatura-Sublime’ style knowingly makes a mockery of the pretensions of artists such as Fuseli.
Gillray enjoyed an influential friendship with the Revd John Sneyd (1763-1835), who was closely connected to the reactionary political circles around George Canning (1770-1827). During the period of the French Wars, Gillray was in the pay of the Tory government. In 1798-1800 he was employed to produce designs for the violently anti-revolutionary periodicals, The Anti-Jacobin and the Anti- Jacobin Magazine. However, even his most baldly propagandistic works have an element of ambivalence and offer a cynical view of humanity.
Gillray’s works from the late 1800s indicate his failing health; often teeming with figures, and full of rather literal allegory, they have a weirdly visionary quality. His last signed work is dated to 1809, and by 1811 he had become insane and suicidal. He was never to recover.
