Lordly Elevation
Playing upon a long tradition that associated mirror gazing with vanity, Gillray shows the thirty year old dwarfish hunchback, Sholto Henry Maclellan, standing before a dressing table with a draped mirror more often seen in portraits of women. He is applauding himself for having been "elevated" to the rank of Baron Kirkcudbright upon the death of his father two weeks earlier on December 24th, 1801.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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He is assisted in his physical elevation by standing upon an appropriately oversized baron's coronet that serves as a foot stool. But the vainglorious Lord Kirkcudbright only emphasizes his deformity by puffing out his chest. Nonetheless, the bottle of Velnos Vegetable syrup on his dressing table, a popular remedy for veneral disease, and the strategically placed hilt of his sword suggests that he is already excited by his future prospects with the ladies.
His self congratulatory speech is derived from that of another hunchback desirous of improving his position, the Duke of Gloucester, at the end of Act I Scene 2 of Shakespeare's King Richard III when Gloucester verbally seduces the Lady Anne.
I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
I'll be at charges for a looking-glass,
And entertain some score or two of tailors,
To study fashions to adorn my body:
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
Will maintain it with some little cost.
The comparison to Richard III, like the print itself, is hardly flattering.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Lordly Elevation
- "MACLELLAN – LORD KIRKCUDBRIGHT," www.kirkcudbright.co
- King Richard III Full Text
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