About This Site
Using This Site
James Gillray: Caricaturist aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to Gillray the man and the artist. It includes information about his life, the state of caricature as an art form as he grew to maturity, a bit about the process and techniques of creating prints from copper plates, and attempts at cataloguing both his drawings and prints. I'd like to think that it now contains everything I wish I had at my disposal when I began my study of Gillray in 2015.
But it still is only an introduction. There is so much more to be said and understood about Gillray as a private person, the influence of his parents and employers, his relationships with other caricaturists such as Rowlandson and Cruikshank, his place in 18th century art history, his business life as a freelance caricaturist, the development of his artistic techniques, his political affiliations, and the reasons for his later decline.
I recommend looking at the recently added Site Map to James Gillray: Caricaturist as probably the best way to understand the overall structure of the site and what it offers.
The heart of James Gillray: Caricaturist is the Chronological Catalogue of his Prints which lists the titles of all the Gillray prints I am aware of, the date of their publication, their orientation, size, British Museum catalog number, and some of the major locations where they can be found. Highlighted titles have commentaries. Non-highlighted titles do not. So far (September 2022), I have written commentaries on over 500 Gillray prints. Though a substantial piece of work in their own right, these commentaries address only perhaps half of Gillray's total output. So there is still much work to be done. Assuming continued health and energy, my goal is to write about all of Gillray's prints.
Searching for Information
In most cases, the best way to find information about specific prints or topics is to use the Site Search at the top of this and other major pages of the site. As a Google-sponsored free service, the search also "finds" paid ads that match the query, and it always puts those results first. But you can quickly scroll past those and the rest of the results will all come from the Gillray site itself.
Reading a Commentary
All commentaries available from the Catalogue page are illustrated by a small version of the print (400 pixels wide) included on the commentary page itself. But for many Gillray prints, there are important details or text that can only be seen or read in a larger format. So for most commentaries, I have included a second, larger image which can be seen by clicking on the print title beneath the small image. On Windows machines that will open up a larger image alongside the commentary which can be kept open while reading the commentary. On Apple machines the larger image will open in a separate tab.
Sources and Readings
Below each commentary is a set of links under the heading, Sources and Readings. The first link in every case is to the British Museum writeup by Dorothy George to whom everyone who studies Gillray is forever indebted. But George was writing at a time when one of the few ways you could see the print itself was by visiting the British Museum. Consequently much of the commentary is devoted a detailed description of what we in the digital age can now see for ourselves. But it is still the best place to start to understand a print of Gillray's. And the most recent iteration of the British Museum site allows one to enlarge the image beyond what I have included on my site. So if you wish to examine details, the British Museum and the Lewis Walpole Library sites both offer high resolution images.
Most of the sources I include are online. That is partly by necessity and partly by design. I have no academic affiliation and consequently no free access to a university library. But even if I had, my goal is to make Gillray as accessible as possible to a general audience of students, collectors, and anyone interested in knowing more about Gillray without needing to purchase expensive art books, or travel to a library. Fortunately, we are living in an age where more and more information is now available on the web—even obscure first hand sources. That digital revolution is what has made this site possible.
Feedback
My goal is to make the site as comprehensive and accurate as I can. But I do and will make mistakes. So at the bottom of every commentary page there is a form that you can use to send me comments and corrections. On the Contact Information page, accessible from the main horizontal menu, I also include my direct email address. I welcome comments of all sorts, even if only to alert me to a typo I've made. (I'm a lousy typist).