THE LESSER CARICATURISTS OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.--PAUL
SANDBY.--COLLET; THE DISASTER, AND FATHER PAUL IN HIS
CUPS.--JAMES SAYER; HIS CARICATURES IN SUPPORT OF PITT, AND
HIS REWARD.--CARLO KHAN'S TRIUMPH.--BUNBURY; HIS CARICATURES
ON HORSEMANSHIP.--WOODWARD; GENERAL COMPLAINT.--ROWLANDSON'S
INFLUENCE ON THE STYLE OF THOSE WHOSE DESIGNS HE ETCHED.--JOHN KAY
OF EDINBURGH: LOOKING A ROCK IN THE FACE.
The school of caricature which had grown amid the political agitation
of the reigns of the two first Georges, gave birth to a number of men
of greater talent in the same branch of art, who carried it to its
highest degree of perfection during that of George III. Among them are
the three great names of Gillray, Rowlandson, and Cruikshank, and a
few who, though second in rank to these, are still well remembered for
the talent displayed in their works, or with the effect they produced
on contemporaries. Among these the principal were Paul Sandby, John
Collet, Sayer, Bunbury, and Woodward.
Sandby has been spoken of in the last chapter. He was not by profession
a caricaturist, but he was one of those rising artists who were
offended by the sneering terms in which Hogarth spoke of all artists
but himself, and he was foremost among those who turned their satire
against him. Examples of his caricatures upon Hogarth have already been
given, sufficient to show that they display skill in composition as
well as a large amount of wit and humour. After his death, they were
republished collectively, under the title, "Retrospective Art, from the
Collection of the late Paul Sandby, Esq., R.A." Sandby was, indeed, one
of the original members of the Royal Academy. He was an artist much
admired in his time, but is now chiefly remembered as a topographical
draughtsman. He was a native of Nottingham, where he was born in
1725,[103] and he died on the 7th of November, 1809.[104]
[103] His death is usually placed, but erroneously, in 1732.
[104] Sandby etched landscapes on steel, and in aquatinta, the latter
by a method peculiarly his own, besides painting in oil and
opaque colours. But his fame rests _mainly_ on being the founder
of the English school of _water-colour painting_, since he was
the first to show the capability of that material to produce
finished pictures, and to lead the way to the perfection in
effect and colour to which that branch of art has since attained.
[Illustration: _No. 213. A Disaster._]
John Collet, who also has been mentioned in a previous chapter, was
born in London in 1725, and died there in 1780. Collet is said to have
been a pupil of Hogarth, and there is a large amount of Hogarthian
character in all his designs. Few artists have been more industrious
and produced a greater number of engravings. He worked chiefly for
Carrington Bowles, in St. Paul's Churchyard, and for Robert Sayers,
at 53, Fleet Street. His prints published by Bowles were engraved
generally in mezzotinto, and highly coloured for sale; while those
published by Sayers were usually line engravings, and sometimes
remarkably well executed. Collet chose for his field of labour that
to which Hogarth had given the title of comedy in art, but he did not
possess Hogarth's power of delineating whole acts and scenes in one
picture, and he contented himself with bits of detail and groups of
characters only. His caricatures are rarely political--they are aimed
at social manners and social vanities and weaknesses, and altogether
they form a singularly curious picture of society during an important
period of the last century. The first example I give (No. 213) is taken
from a line engraving, published by Sayers in 1776. At this time the
natural adornments of the person in both sexes had so far yielded to
artificial ornament, that even women cut off their own hair in order to
replace it by an ornamental _peruque_, supporting a head-dress, which
varied from time to time in form and in extravagance. Collet has here
introduced to us a lady who, encountering a sudden and violent wind,
has lost all her upper coverings, and wig, cap, and hat are caught by
her footman behind. The lady is evidently suffering under the feeling
of shame; and hard by, a cottager and his wife, at their door, are
laughing at her discomfiture. A bill fixed against a neighbouring wall
announces "A Lecture upon Heads."
At this time the "no-popery" feeling ran very high. Four years
afterwards it broke out violently in the celebrated lord Gordon riots.
It was this feeling which contributed greatly to the success of
Sheridan's comedy of "The Duenna," brought out in 1775. Collet drew
several pictures founded upon scenes in this play, one of which is
given in our cut No. 214. It forms one of Carington Bowles's rather
numerous series of prints from designs by Collet, and represents the
well-known drinking scene in the convent, in the fifth scene of the
third act of "The Duenna." The scene, it will be remembered, is "a room
in the priory," and the excited monks are toasting, among other objects
of devotion, the abbess of St. Ursuline and the blue-eyed nun of St.
Catherine's. The "blue-eyed nun" is, perhaps, the lady seen through the
window, and the patron saint of her convent is represented in one of
the pictures on the wall. There is great spirit in this picture, which
is entitled "Father Paul in his Cups, or the Private Devotions of a
Convent." It is accompanied with the following lines:--
_See with these friars how religion thrives,
Who love good living better than good lives;
Paul, the superior father, rules the roast,
His god's the glass, the blue-eyed nun his toast.
Thus priests consume what fearful fools bestow,
And saints' donations make the bumpers flow.
The butler sleeps--the cellar door is free--
This is a modern cloister's piety._
[Illustration: _No. 214. Father Paul in his Cups._]
From Collet to Sayer we rush into the heat--I may say into the
bitterness--of politics, for James Sayer is known, with very trifling
exceptions, as a political caricaturist. He was the son of a captain
of a merchant ship at Great Yarmouth, but was himself put to the
profession of an attorney. As, however, he was possessed of a moderate
independence, and appears to have had no great taste for the law, he
neglected his business, and, with considerable talent for satire and
caricature, he threw himself into the political strife of the day.
Sayer was a bad draughtsman, and his pictures are produced more by
labour than by skill in drawing, but they possess a considerable
amount of humour, and were sufficiently severe to obtain popularity
at a time when this latter character excused worse drawing even than
that of Sayer. He made the acquaintance and gained the favour of the
younger William Pitt, when that statesman was aspiring to power, and
he began his career as a caricaturist by attacking the Rockingham
ministry in 1782--of course in the interest of Pitt. Sayer's earliest
productions which are now known, are a series of caricature portraits
of the Rockingham administration, that appear to have been given to
the public in instalments, at the several dates of April 6, May 14,
June 17, and July 3, 1782, and bear the name of C. Bretherton as
publisher. He published his first veritable caricature on the occasion
of the ministerial changes which followed the death of lord Rockingham,
when lord Shelburne was placed at the head of the cabinet, and Fox
and Burke retired, while Pitt became chancellor of the exchequer.
This caricature, which bears the title of "Paradise Lost," and is, in
fact, a parody upon Milton, represents the once happy pair, Fox and
Burke, turned out of their paradise, the Treasury, the arch of the
gate of which is ornamented with the heads of Shelburne, the prime
minister, and Dunning and Barré, two of his staunch supporters, who
were considered to be especially obnoxious to Fox and Burke. Between
these three heads appear the faces of two mocking fiends, and groups
of pistols, daggers, and swords. Beneath are inscribed the well-known
lines of Milton--
_To the eastern side
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate
With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms!
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon.
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and providence their guide.
They, arm in arm, with wand'ring steps, and slow,
Thro' Eden took their solitary way._
Nothing can be more lugubrious than the air of the two friends,
Fox and Burke, as they walk away, arm in arm, from the gate of the
ministerial paradise. From this time Sayer, who adopted all Pitt's
virulence towards Fox, made the latter a continual subject of his
satire. Nor did this zeal pass unrewarded, for Pitt, in power, gave the
caricaturist the not unlucrative offices of marshal of the court of
exchequer, receiver of the sixpenny duties, and cursitor. Sayer was,
in fact, Pitt's caricaturist, and was employed by him in attacking
successively the coalition under Fox and North, Fox's India Bill, and
even, at a later period, Warren Hastings on his trial.
[Illustration: _No. 215. A Contrast._]
I have already remarked that Sayer was almost exclusively a political
caricaturist. The exceptions are a few prints on theatrical subjects,
in which contemporary actors and actresses are caricatured, and a
single subject from fashionable life. A copy of the latter forms our
cut No. 215. It has no title in the original, but in a copy in my
possession a contemporary has written on the margin in pencil that
the lady is Miss Snow and the gentleman Mr. Bird, no doubt well-known
personages in contemporary society. It was published on the 19th of
July, 1783.
One of Sayer's most successful caricatures, in regard to the effect
it produced on the public, was that on Fox's India Bill, published on
the 5th of September, 1783. It was entitled "Carlo Khan's Triumphal
Entry into Leadenhall Street," Carlo Khan being personified by Fox,
who is carried in triumph to the door of the India House on the back
of an elephant, which presents the face of lord North. Burke, who had
been the principal supporter of the bill in debate, appears in the
character of the imperial trumpeter, and leads the elephant on its way.
On a banner behind Carlo, the old inscription, "The Man of the People,"
the title popularly given to Fox, is erased, and the two Greek words,
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ "king of kings," substituted in its place. From
a chimney above, the bird of ill omen croaks forth the doom of the
ambitious minister, who, it was pretended, aimed at making himself more
powerful than the king himself; and on the side of the house just below
we read the words--
_The night-crow cried foreboding luckless time._--Shakespeare.
Henry William Bunbury belonged to a more aristocratic class in society
than any of the preceding. He was the second son of sir William
Bunbury, Bart., of Mildenhall, in the county of Suffolk, and was
born in 1750. How he first took so zealously to caricature we have
no information, but he began to publish before he was twenty-one
years of age. Bunbury's drawing was bold and often good, but he had
little skill in etching, for some of his earlier prints, published
in 1771, which he etched himself, are coarsely executed. His designs
were afterwards engraved by various persons, and his own style was
sometimes modified in this process. His earlier prints were etched and
sold by James Bretherton, who has been already mentioned as publishing
the works of James Sayer. This Bretherton was in some esteem as an
engraver, and he also had a print-shop at 132, New Bond Street, where
his engravings were published. James had a son named Charles, who
displayed great talent at an early age, but he died young. As early as
1772, when the macaronis (the dandies of the eighteenth century) came
into fashion, James Bretherton's name appears on prints by Bunbury as
the engraver and publisher, and it occurs again as the engraver of
his print of "Strephon and Chloe" in 1801, which was published by
Fores. At this and a later period some of his designs were engraved
by Rowlandson, who always transferred his own style to the drawings
he copied. A remarkable instance of this is furnished by a print of a
party of anglers of both sexes in a punt, entitled "Anglers of 1811"
(the year of Bunbury's death). But for the name, "H. Bunbury, del.,"
very distinctly inscribed upon it, we should take this to be a genuine
design by Rowlandson; and in 1803 Rowlandson engraved some copies of
Bunbury's prints on horsemanship for Ackermann, of the Strand, in which
all traces of Bunbury's style are lost. Bunbury's style is rather
broadly burlesque.
[Illustration: _No. 216. How to Travel on Two Legs in a Frost._]
Bunbury had evidently little taste for political caricature, and he
seldom meddled with it. Like Collet, he preferred scenes of social
life, and humorous incidents of contemporary manners, fashionable
or popular. He had a great taste for caricaturing bad or awkward
horsemanship or unmanageable horses, and his prints of such subjects
were numerous and greatly admired. This taste for equestrian pieces
was shown in prints published in 1772, and several droll series of
such subjects appeared at different times, between 1781 and 1791,
one of which was long famous under the title of "Geoffrey Gambado's
Horsemanship." An example of these incidents of horsemanship is copied
in our cut No. 216, where a not very skilful rider, with a troublesome
horse, is taking advantage of the state of the ground for accelerating
locomotion. It is entitled, "How to travel on Two Legs in a Frost," and
is accompanied with the motto, in Latin, "_Ostendunt terris hunc tantum
fata, neque ultra esse sinent_."
[Illustration: _No. 217. Strephon and Chloe._]
Occasionally Bunbury drew in a broader style of caricature, especially
in some of his later works. Of our examples of this broader style, the
first cut, No. 217, entitled "Strephon and Chloe," is dated the 1st of
July, 1801. It is the very acme of sentimental courtship, expressed
in a spirit of drollery which could not easily be excelled. The next
group (cut No. 218), from a similar print published on the 21st of
July in the same year, is a no less admirable picture of overstrained
politeness. It is entitled in the original, "The Salutation Tavern,"
probably with a temporary allusion beyond the more apparent design of
the picture. Bunbury, as before stated, died in 1811. It is enough to
say that sir Joshua Reynolds used to express a high opinion of him as
an artist.
[Illustration: _No. 218. A Fashionable Salutation._]
Bunbury's prints rarely appeared without his name, and, except when
they had passed through the engraving of Rowlandson, are easily
recognised. No doubt his was considered a popular name, which was
almost of as much importance as the print itself. But a large
mass of the caricatures published at the latter end of the last
century and the beginning of the present, appeared anonymously, or
with imaginary names. Thus a political print, entitled "The Modern
Atlas," bears the inscription "Mas^r Hook fecit;" another entitled
"Farmer George delivered," has that of "Poll Pitt del." "Everybody
delin^{it}," is inscribed on a caricature entitled "The Lover's Leap;"
and one which appeared under the title of "Veterinary Operations,"
is inscribed "Giles Grinagain fect." Some of these were probably
the works of amateurs, for there appear to have been many amateur
caricaturists in England at that time. In a caricature entitled
"The Scotch Arms," published by Fores on the 3rd of January, 1787,
we find the announcement, "Gentlemen's designs executed gratis,"
which means, of course, that Fores would publish the caricatures of
amateurs, if he approved them, without making the said amateurs pay
for the engraving. But also some of the best caricaturists of the
day published much anonymously, and we know that this was the case
to a very great extent with such artists as Cruikshank, Woodward,
&c., at all events until such time as their names became sufficiently
popular to be a recommendation to the print. It is certain that many
of Woodward's designs were published without his name. Such was the
case with the print of which we give a copy in our cut No. 219, which
was published on the 5th of May, 1796, and which bears strongly the
marks of Woodward's style. The spring of this year, 1796, witnessed a
general disappointment at the failure of the negociations for peace,
and therefore the necessity of new sacrifices for carrying on the war,
and of increased taxation. Many clever caricatures appeared on this
occasion, of which this by Woodward was one. Of course, when war was
inevitable, the question of generals was a very important one, and
the caricaturist pretends that the greatest general of the age was
"General Complaint." The general appears here with an empty purse in
his right hand, and in his left a handful of papers containing a list
of bankrupts, the statement of the budget, &c. Four lines beneath, in
rather doggrel verse, explain the situation as follows:--
_Don't tell me of generals raised from mere boys,
Though, believe me, I mean not their laurel to taint;
But the general, I'm sure, that will make the most noise,
If the war still goes on, will be General Complaint._
[Illustration: _No. 219. General Complaint._]
[Illustration: _No. 220. Desire._]
There was much of Bunbury's style in that of Woodward, who had a taste
for the same broad caricatures upon society, which he executed in a
similar spirit. Some of the _suites_ of subjects of this description
that he published, such as the series of the "Symptoms of the Shop,"
those of "Everybody out of town" and "Everybody in Town," and the
"Specimens of Domestic Phrensy," are extremely clever and amusing.
Woodward's designs were also not unfrequently engraved by Rowlandson,
who, as usual, imprinted his own style upon them. A very good example
of this practice is seen in the print of which we give a copy in our
cut No. 220. Its title, in the original, is "Desire," and the passion
is exemplified in the case of a hungry schoolboy watching through a
window a jolly cook carrying by a tempting plum-pudding. We are told in
an inscription underneath: "Various are the ways this passion might be
depicted; in this delineation the subjects chosen are simple--a hungry
boy and a plum-pudding." The design of this print is stated to be
Woodward's; but the style is altogether that of Rowlandson, whose name
appears on it as the etcher. It was published by R. Ackermann, on the
20th of January, 1800. Woodward is well known by his prolific pencil,
but we are so little acquainted with the man himself, that I cannot
state the date either of his birth or of his death.
[Illustration: _No. 221. Looking a Rock in the Face._]
There lived at this time in Edinburgh an engraver of some eminence in
his way, but whose name is now nearly forgotten, and, in fact, it does
not occur in the last edition of Bryan's "Dictionary of Engravers."
This name was John Kay, which is found attached to prints, of which
about four hundred are known, with dates extending from 1784 to 1817.
As an engraver, Kay possessed no great talent, but he had considerable
humour, and he excelled in catching and delineating the striking
points in the features and gait of the individuals who then moved in
Edinburgh Society. In fact, a large proportion of his prints consist of
caricature portraits, often several figures on the same plate, which is
usually of small dimensions. Among them are many of the professors and
other distinguished members of the university of Edinburgh. Thus one,
copied in our cut No. 221, represents the eminent old geologist, Dr.
James Hutton, rather astonished at the shapes which his favourite rocks
have suddenly taken. The original print is dated in 1787, ten years
before Dr. Hutton's death. The idea of giving faces to rocks was not
new in the time of John Kay, and it has been frequently repeated. Some
of these caricature portraits are clever and amusing, and they are at
times very satirical. Kay appears to have rarely ventured on caricature
of any other description, but there is one rare plate by him, entitled
"The Craft in Danger," which is stated in a few words pencilled on the
copy I have before me, to have been aimed at a cabal for proposing Dr.
Barclay for a professorship in the university of Edinburgh. It displays
no great talent, and is, in fact, now not very intelligible. The
figures introduced in it are evidently intended for rather caricatured
portraits of members of the university engaged in the cabal, and are in
the style of Kay's other portraits.[105]
[105] In the library of the British Museum there is a collection of
John Kay's works bound in two volumes quarto, with a title and
table of contents in manuscript, but whether it is one of a few
copies intended for publication, or whether it is merely the
collection of some individual, I am not prepared to say. It
contains 343 plates, which are stated to be all Kay's works down
to the year 1813, when this collection was made. "The Craft in
Danger" is not among them. I have before me a smaller, but a very
choice selection, of Kay's caricatures, the loan of which I owe
to the kindness of Mr. John Camden Hotten, of Piccadilly. I am
indebted to Mr. Hotten for many courtesies of this description,
and especially for the use of a very valuable collection of
caricatures of the latter part of the eighteenth century and
earlier part of the present, mounted in four large folio volumes,
which has been of much use to me.