The Battle between Mendoza and Humphrey...
This is the third print by Gillray devoted to the celebrated boxers Daniel Mendoza and Richard Humphreys, and it suggests both the popularity of the sport and Gillray's willingness to create the kinds of prints (whether caricatured or not) that his audience wanted.
As usual, Gillray has learned on the job. The first print in January 1788 The Famous Battle between Richard Humphreys & Daniel Mendoza... is both static and generic. There is little sense of action and the faces are mostly undistinguishable. It seems more concerned to include the complete set of characters (seconds, bottle-holders, and judges) than any real action. The next print Foul Play...created a week later still uses mostly generic faces, but is now much more dramatic focusing on a crucial moment in the fight and successfully capturing the movement and action of the participants. And now, in this, his third print devoted to the boxers, Gillray again conveys a sense of the action, but this time he creates a credible likeness of Mendoza, based on a standalone portrait of Mendoza he completed in April of 1788.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
The first match (a year and a half earlier) had been attended by four hundred spectators who had paid half a guinea entrance fee, and another four hundred who had broken down the fences of the paddock where the fight was held and watched for free. This time the fight promoters were ready. According to the London Political Magazine, an ampitheatre was erected in the park of a Mr. Thornton accommodating 2000-3000 spectators. Admission was once again half a guinea.
The key events of this much anticipated rematch are described in the lengthy subtitle to the print.
The Battle between Mendoza and Humphrey fought on Wednesday May 6th 1789 at Stilton in Huntingdonshire...terminated in favor of Mendoza; who having by his superior Skill foiled Humphrey in every endeavor, for 35 Minutes, obliged him at last to have recourse to the cowardly method of Falling to avoid the blows, by which according to the agreement he forfeited the honor of the day; but Mendoza with unequaled Spirit & liberality scorning so cheap a victory, after giving Humphrey half an hours respite, engag'd him afresh, & after a second contest of 15 Minutes obliged him to yield the laurel to superior skill—the Christian pugilist proving himself as inferior to the Jewish Hero as Dr. Priestly when opposed to the rabbi David Lowe.
Sources and Reading
- "Noble Art: the BSAT Boxing Print Collection" British Sporting Art Trust.
- "Daniel Mendoza" in Alchetron.
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