Gillray Caricatures: Pitt and Fox

Caricaturists thrive when their targets are visually distinctive. Gillray received a gift in Pitt and Fox, as not only could both be easily caricatured, but their appearances contrasted strongly with each other. The contrast is most effectively seen in prints in which they both appear, such as A Smoking Club (D12470) and Bank-notes, - paper-money, - French-alarmists (D12601), when the fair, exaggeratedly slender figure of Pitt is contrasted with the portly, dark and unshaven Fox. A series of prints appeared in the early 1790s in which Gillray appeared to be playing with Pitt's shape. These include An excrescence; - a fungus; - alias - a toad-stool upon a dung-hill (D12435), and A sphere, projecting against a plane (D12438).

Gillray Caricatures