Maria Garcia ('La belle Espagnole, - ou - la doublure de Madame Tallien')

1 portrait of Thérésa Cabarrus Tallien

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Maria Garcia ('La belle Espagnole, - ou - la doublure de Madame Tallien')

by James Gillray, published by Hannah Humphrey
hand-coloured etching, published 25 February 1796
13 in. x 9 3/8 in. (329 mm x 239 mm) paper size
Purchased, 1947
Reference Collection
NPG D12559

Sitterback to top

  • Maria Garcia (active 1780s-1790s), Dancer, known as La Belle Espagnole. Sitter associated with 1 portrait.

Artistsback to top

  • James Gillray (1756-1815), Caricaturist. Artist or producer associated with 887 portraits, Sitter in 7 portraits.
  • Hannah Humphrey (circa 1745-1818), Publisher and printseller. Artist or producer associated with 720 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.

Placesback to top

Events of 1796back to top

Current affairs

Birth of Princess Charlotte, only child of George, Prince of Wales and Princess Caroline whose marriage soon quickly and publicly degenerates.

Art and science

Fanny Burney publishes Camilla, one of several influential novels exploring social misunderstanding and the fashionable mode of sensibility.
Architect William Chambers completes the building of Somerset House.
Collector William Beckford, the richest man in England, begins construction of his gothic fantasy Fonthill Abbey.

International

Napoleon Bonaparte assumes command of the French armies in Italy and defeats the Austrians at Millesimo and the Piedmontese at Mondovi.
Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, arrives in India as a colonel.
John Adams is elected President of the United States, defeating Thomas Jefferson by three votes.

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Rebecca Milner

23 September 2017, 18:26

The sitter is not Madame Tallien but Maria Garcia, aka La Belle Espagnole, a rope dancer in Georgian England who performed at Sadler's Wells. I have written a piece on my blog www.themisfortuneclub.com, telling Maria's story and commenting on Gillray's print and the use of the 'doublure'. I would very much like this print to be given more prominence in NPG's collection as it is an important source of evidence in the history of black people in Britain.