Dido in despair! [graphic] / Js. Gillray inv. & fect.


Description

Title
Dido in despair! [graphic] / Js. Gillray inv. & fect.
Creator
Gillray, James, 1756-1815, printmaker.
Published / Created
1801 February 6
Copyright Date
[6 February 1801]
Publication Place
[London]
Publisher
H. Humprey, No. 27 St. James's Street
Abstract
"A bedroom scene. Lady Hamilton, grotesquely fat, but with traces of beauty in her features, rises from a curtained bed, arms and one leg extended in a burlesqued gesture of despair. She wears a nightgown and lace-trimmed cap. Behind her in the shadowed depths of the bed the night-capped head of her elderly and (?) sleeping husband, rests on the pillow. She looks, weeping, towards an open sash-window through which is seen a fleet sailing towards the horizon. In the window (left) is a cushioned window seat on which (besides a stocking) is an open book: 'Studies of Academic Attitudes taken from the Life'; on one page is a nude woman lying in sensual abandonment. On the right against the curtains of the bed is a dressing-table on which, besides toilet-articles, are a flask of 'Maraschino', a 'Composing Draught', and a pot of 'Rouge à la Naples'. On the carpeted floor (right) are objects from Sir W. Hamilton's collection, with an open book: 'Antiquities of Herculaneum Naples Caprea &c. &c.'; on the right page is a satyr chasing a nymph. They include an oval gem, a figure of a squatting monster, headless, the base inscribed 'Pri[apus]', a laughing bust of 'Messalina', statues of a Venus and a Satyr, coins or medals, one inscribed 'Ovid', another 'Tibertius'. In front of Lady Hamilton are the slippers she has kicked off, and a garter inscribed 'The Hero of the Nile'."--British Museum online catalogue.
Description
"Dido" is a reference to a character from Virgil's Aeneid.
Four lines of quoted verse, two on either side of title, etched below image: "Ah, where & ah where, is my gallant sailor gone? "He's gone to fight the Frenchmen, for George upon the throne. "He's gone to fight [the] Frenchmen, t' loose t' other arm & eye. "And left me with the old antiques, to lay me down & cry.
Title etched below image.
Extent
1 print : etching with engraving and stipple engraving ; sheet 25.2 x 35.8 cm
Extent of Digitization
Completely digitized
Language
English

Collection Information

Call Number
Auchincloss Gillray v. 10

Subjects, Formats, And Genres

Format
still image
Genre
Engravings--England--London--1801.
Etchings--England--London--1801.
Satires (Visual works)--England--1801.
Stipple engravings--England--London--1801.
Watermarks (Paper)--Ruse & Turners.--CtY-BR
Subject (Name)
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership.
Gillray, James, 1756-1815, artist.
Hamilton, Emma,--Lady,--1761?-1815--Caricatures and cartoons.
Hamilton, William,--Sir,--1730-1803--Caricatures and cartoons.
Harvey, Francis--Ownership.
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
Nelson, Horatio Nelson,--Viscount,--1758-1805--Caricatures and cartoons.
Virgil.--Aeneis--Parodies, imitations, etc.--depicted.
Subject (Topic)
Antiques.
Bedrooms.
Interiors.
Obesity.
Window seats.

Access And Usage Rights

Access
Public
Rights
The use of this image may be subject to the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) or to site license or other rights management terms and conditions. The person using the image is liable for any infringement.
Citation
Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8, no. 9752, Wright, T. Historical and descriptive account of the caricatures by James Gillray, no. 497, and Wright, T. Works of James Gillray, the caricaturist with the history of his life and times, p. 279

Identifiers

Orbis Record
8321484
OID
11861015

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