- Museum number
- 1868,0808.6794
- Title
- Object: Two Pair of Portraits
- Description
-
Pl. facing p. 574, vol. i, where a transcript of Horne Tooke's pamphlet, published for the Westminster Election of 1788, is styled 'Description of the Print'. The title continues: 'presented to all the unbiassed Electors of Great Britain, [The original title, reprinted on p. 574, continued: 'and especially to the Electors of Westminster.' The whole text of the pamphlet is reprinted in the Review, pp. 574-9, 702-9, but not in parallel columns as in 1788.] by John Horne Tooke'. Horne Tooke, not caricatured, sits at an easel on which are juxtaposed two canvases, three-quarter length [Horne Tooke described his portraits as 'not whole lengths, and left for some younger hand hereafter to finish . . .', p. 7.] portraits of Fox (Ieft) and Pitt (right); he holds palette and brushes, but looks over his right shoulder at the spectator, saying: ""Which two of them will you chuse \ "to hang up inyour Cabinets; \ "the Pitts, or the Foxes? - \ "Where, on your Conscience, \ "should the other two be hanged?" [Op. cit., final words.] Fox's left hand rests on a pedestal inscribed 'Deceit', on which the head of a fox holding a mask is just discernible. Pitt's right hand rests on a similar but rather higher pedestal inscribed 'Truth'; Truth's head and a hand holding a mirror are just discernible. Their expressions support the two inscriptions. From the painter's pocket projects a pamphlet: 'Sketches of Patriotic Views - a Pension, a Mouth Stopper a Place.'
On the ground, resting against a table, is the other pair of portraits, juxtaposed, Lord Holland (left) and Chatham (right), bust portraits, in peer's robes, the family likenesses to their sons, especially in the case of the Foxes, being stressed. Each holds a document: Holland, 'Unaccounted Millions' (he had been styled the public defaulter of unaccounted millions in the City petition of 1769, see BMSat 4296, &c, and cf. BMSat 8622); Chatham, 'Rewards of a Grateful Nation'. On the table is a portfolio of 'Studies from French Masters' from which protrude sketches inscribed 'From Robertspierre, from Tallien, from Marat'. (Cf. BMSat 8437, &c.)
The wall, which forms a background, is covered with prints, &c. (left to right): [1] (partly visible) a dagger about to be plunged into a prostrate figure, inscribed '3d Sept [1792]', see BMSat 8122. [2] 'A Sketch for an English Directory', four members of the London Corresponding Society (see BMSat 9189, &c.) seated at a table, the chairman a butcher holding a frothing tankard. (The figures are not quite the grotesque denizens of the underworld represented in BMSat 9202.) [3] A framed half length portrait of Wilkes, squinting violently and clasping two large money-bags: 'Mr Chamberlain Wilkes ci-devant', 'Wilkes & Liberty' (see BMSat 6568); it is labelled: 'The Effect in this Picture to be copied as exact as possible'. [4] A profile in silhouette: 'Shadow of the Abbe Seyes' (see BMSat 9509). [5] A framed picture: 'view of the Windmill at Wimbleton' (from Horne Tooke's house, near Caesar's Camp). The two upper sails are 'Divinity' and 'Politicks', the lower 'Treason' and 'Atheism'. [6] A placard: 'just publish'd The Art of Political Painting, extracted from the works of the most celebrated Jacobin Professors - Pro bono publico.' [7] A bust of 'Machiavel', looking reflectively towards Horne Tooke. [8] Part of a landscape with a small house: 'Parsonage of Brentford' (cf. BMSat 4866, &c). 1 December 1798
Hand coloured etching
- Production date
- 1798
- Dimensions
-
Height: 194 millimetres
-
Width: 264 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942)
Fox and Horne Tooke, equally the subjects of attack, had become reconciled, cf. BMSat 8813, and the latter, a violent opponent of Pitt, is exhibited as a renegade by a literal illustration of his own pamphlet. Cf. BMSat 7371.
Grego, 'Gillray', p. 253. Reproduced, Grego, 'Hist. of Parliamentary Elections', 1892, p. 305.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.6794
