Election Candidates
James Gillray
1807
- Medium
- Hand-colored etching on ivory wove paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 31.5 × 25 cm (12 7/16 × 9 7/8 in.); Plate: 36 × 25.8 cm (14 3/16 × 10 3/16 in.); Sheet: 36.8 × 28.7 cm (14 1/2 × 11 5/16 in.)
- Genre
- etching
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
printprints and drawingetchingpaper (fiber product)
About
Despite its jovial hand coloring, James Gillray’s response to the 1807 parliamentary election in the district of Westminster caricatures real candidates with ruthlessness. Here Gillray implied that the winner, the radical Sir Francis Burdett, had extra help. Burdett becomes the goose atop the pole, supported by a demonic figure with a pitchfork, while the agitated constituency below degenerates into a mob.
