Pulling Faces
Past display archive
24 June - 3 December 2006
Room 16
Free
William Pitt
by James Gillray
1789
NPG D4086
good caricature, like every work of art, is more true to life than reality itself - Annibale Carracci
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 was developed in Italy in the seventeenth century - and the word 'caricature' is thought to originate from the Italian word caricare meaning 'to exaggerate'. Caricature was introduced to England in the late 1730s, where it was taken up by the wealthy elite as a private pastime. They sketched each other, making subtle exaggerations and gently poking fun. At first, caricature was a shared amusement between friends.
The popularity of caricature was promoted, in the eighteenth-century, by the interest in physiognomy - the practise of interpreting character from facial features. The exaggeration and distortion of caricature played upon this visual language, suggesting the faults and virtues of their subjects.
Although an aristocratic pastime, the aspirant middle-classes quickly adopted the practice of caricature. They were encouraged by owners of print shops, who would engrave and publish sketches and then sell them on behalf of the amateur artist, bringing caricature to a wider audience:
Ladies or Gentlemen furnishing hints or sketches will have them duly honoured and published - Advertisement for Darly's Comic Prints, 1779
Dr Barrow
by Silvester (Sylvester) Harding, or by Samuel Harding, published by E. & S. Harding, after John Nixon
1795
NPG D18608
The active participation of both the aristocracy and the rich ensured lasting success for caricature, and it quickly became an integral part of political and public life, as it still is today.
James Gillray (1756-1815) was one of the first professional artists to incorporate caricature portraits into more complex and ambitious satirical prints. By the 1780s, the word 'caricature' had come to denote all satirical prints. Its practice was no longer a light-hearted amateur pastime, but a political, and often rancorous activity. Gillray's career coincides with the increasing intensity of political life, and his savagely comic caricatures of politicians and the royal family exposed corruption and moral failings while mocking folly, greed and lechery.
Gillray's audacious and disrespectful approach inspired later caricaturists, who continued to attack the Royal family's moral dissipation during the Regency period, including the private lives of the Prince Regent and Queen Caroline. These were the climactic years for a type of vulgar caricature, which began to fall from favour during the 1830s.
Links
Related portraits
- William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath (NPG D663)
- Thomas Bentley (NPG D4501)
- The Treacherous Patriot Unmask'd (William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath) (NPG D9351)
- Characters and Caricaturas' (NPG D21371)
- Edward Gibbon (NPG D2757)
- A Family Piece (NPG D21380)
- Edward Gibbon (NPG D9030)
- William Pitt (NPG D4086)
- 'Wierd sisters; ministers of darkness; minions of the moon' (NPG D12436)
- King George IV ('A voluptuary under the horrors of digestion') (NPG D12460)
- Dr Barrow (NPG D18608)
- 'The giant factotem amusing himself' (NPG D12593)
- '"Two pair of portraits"' (NPG D13687)
- William Pitt (NPG D16448)
- 'Absolute wisdom, or Queen's owl. Taken from a wood' (Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Bt) (NPG D4902)
- Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (NPG D10809)
- A Wooden Substitute, or Any Port in a Storm (NPG D10847)
- Installation of a Knight Companion of the Bath (NPG D17918a)
- Dido in Despair (Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel) (NPG D17918b)
- Buy a Broom ?!! (Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux) (NPG D16762)
- Elizabeth Conyngham (née Denison), Marchioness Conyngham ('The Guard Wot Looks Arter the Sovereign') (NPG D13817)
Related sitters
- Dr Barrow
- William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath
- Thomas Bentley
- Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
- Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
- Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
- William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
- Elizabeth Conyngham (née Denison), Marchioness Conyngham
- Louisa Demont
- Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine
- Henry Fielding
- Charles James Fox
- King George III
- King George IV
- Edward Gibbon
- Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
- William Hogarth
- Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland
- Theodore Majocchi
- Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville
- Bartolomeo Pergami
- William Pitt
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan
- Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth
- Michael Angelo Taylor
- Edward Thurlow, Baron Thurlow
- John Horne Tooke
- William Wilberforce
- John Wilkes
- Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Bt
Related artists
- Charles Brome
- Henry William Bunbury
- George Cruikshank
- William Dickinson
- Richard Dighton
- James Douglas
- Pier Leone Ghezzi
- James Gillray
- John Hall
- E. & S. Harding
- Samuel Harding
- Silvester (Sylvester) Harding
- William Heath
- William Hogarth
- George Humphrey
- Hannah Humphrey
- Theodore Lane
- John Nixon
- William Owen
- Sir Joshua Reynolds
- John Simon
- Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt
- Unknown artist
- John Wright