Old Maid on a Journey

'An Old Maid on a Journey', a hand-coloured etching by the cartoonist, James Gillray, based on Brownlow North, 1804. 'An Old Maid on a Journey', a hand-coloured etching by the cartoonist, James Gillray, based on Brownlow North, 1804. © The Trustees of the British Museum, acc. no. 1851,0901.1157.

The British Museum in London houses a hand-coloured satirical etching, called 'An Old Maid on a Journey', which was made by the cartoonist, James Gillray, and which was based on the work of the amateur draughtsman, Brownlow North (1778-1829), son of Brownlow North, the Bishop of Winchester. The print measures 25.5 x 38.3 cm and was published by Hannah Humphrey (c. 1745-1818; No. 27, St James's Street, London).

The etching shows a fat woman leading a procession of servants (?), one of whom is an elderly man carrying a rectangular table embroidery frame with a piece of embroidery in situ (plus a bag and a box).

James Gillray (1756/7-1815) was a famous producer of satirical prints. In his younger years many of his works were published by Joshua Kirby Baldrey (1754-1828) in Cambridge. In his later career he worked almost exclusively for Hannah Humphrey, or Mrs Humphrey (although she never married), in whose house he lived from c. 1795 until his death. In 2001, Tate Britain mounted an exhibition of his work, "James Gillray: The Art of Caricature".

British Museum online catalogue (retrieved 16 January 2017).

WV

Last modified on Monday, 20 March 2017 18:54