Gillray, James (1756–1815). Caricaturist. Abandoning the discipline of reproductive engraving for pungently witty etching, and stimulated by the political satires of James Sayers but concealing his own views, Gillray played a key role in the evolution of pictorial journalism by his development of recognizable caricature and rapid response to events. Using brightly coloured, almost grotesque distortion of an individual's salient features, to conjure amusement or contempt, Gillray targeted the royal family, politicians, society figures, exquisites, and charlatans. Fashionable London both approved and feared. From 1791 he settled down to etch almost exclusively for the printseller Hannah Humphrey, lodging over her West End shop, and briefly in receipt of a Tory pension, but generally retaining his independence. Failing eyesight (probably stemming from his meticulous craftsmanship) and increasing insanity from 1810 hastened his decline.

A. S. Hargreaves

Gillray, James (1757–1815) English caricaturist. His political and social satire was wider in scope than that of Hogarth. Gillray lampooned George III as ‘Farmer George’. William Pitt and Napoleon I appear in “The Plum Pudding in Danger”.