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| You are in National Portrait Gallery | Search the Collection | Archive Collection | Caricatures | Caricature comes to England | |||||||||
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| Caricatures capture the likeness of a person in a few quick strokes. They work by exaggerating and distorting prominent physical features to create an image that is both immediately recognisable and amusing. The art of caricature was developed in Italy in the seventeenth century- the word 'caricature' is thought to originate from the Italian word caricare meaning 'to exaggerate' and caricature was introduced to England in the late 1730s by wealthy gentlemen who had made a Grand Tour of Europe. They returned with bundles of sketches as mementos of their trip. | |
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Thomas Bentley |
King George II |
| Ghezzi was an Italian caricaturist in Rome, where he sketched a handful of British tourists, including this one of Thomas Bentley, librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge. The English engraver Arthur Pond saw the commercial potential of caricatures, and published twenty-six prints after sketches by Ghezzi and earlier masters of the art, including Annibale Carracci. The prints proved enormously popular in England. | George Townshend, a professional soldier and later, fourth Viscount Townsend, was one of the first gentlemen in England to take up caricature as an amateur pastime. His contemporary Horace Walpole noted that: 'His genius for likeness in caricature is astonishing'. His caricatures were often motivated by personal grievances, and he was said to 'adorn the shutters, walls and napkins of every tavern in Pall Mall with caricatures'. Many of his caricatures were engraved and published, bringing this amateur artist to a wider public. |
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protection. 18 November 2008 |
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