Neck or Nothing
The wittiness of a caricature is often enhanced by a visual-verbal pun, the application of a familiar phrase to an image or situation for which it was not intended. Recognizing an unexpected appropriateness in the connection then gives us a subtle pleasure. There are lots of examples in Gillray's work. For one example, The Whore's Last Shift (1779) where a young woman, reduced to prostitution, her last shift or recourse to make ends meet, is seen washing her last shift or undergarment. Another example is The Man of Feeling (1800) where the title of the hugely popular sentimental novel by Henry Mackenzie is given a literal representation as the randy Prince of Orange reaches under the dresses of two astonished young women.
© Trustees of the British Museum
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In the 18th century, "neck or nothing" was an expression that meant "at all risks," or or "risking everything." It was equivalent to today's "all or nothing." But it was given an even further currency by being the title of a well-known farce writtten by the famous British actor/manager David Garrick. Applied to this caricature of the latest fashion in men's collars and cravats, the title would suggest a style that simultaneously seems all neck and no neck at all.
Gillray's print is based on an amateur drawing by a "Miss Keate," i.e. the ~22 year old Georgiana Keate, daughter of the writer, poet, playwright, and artist, George Keate, who was a friend of Garrick. There are numerous drawings by her father in the British Museum Collection—mostly landscapes created while traveling in Europe. Georgiana seems to have taken after her father and shown an early talent for painting. Angelica Kauffman, the first female nominated to the Royal Academy, is said to have taken an interest in her artistic skills and created one of few surviving portraits of the budding artist. Georgiana exhibited four pictures at the Society of Artists in 1791. She also created The Back View of the Cape, a companion to Neck or Nothing which Gillray etched at the same time.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Neck or Nothing
- David Garrick, Neck or Nothing
- "Georgiana Keate," Wikipedia
- "George Keate," Wikipedia
- Susan Bennett, A Thankless Child: The Life and Times of Georgiana Jane Henderson (1771-1850), 2020.
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