Blue & buff charity, or, The patriarch of the Greek clergy applying for relief / Js. Gy. desn. et fect.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
Blue & buff charity, or, The patriarch of the Greek clergy applying for relief / Js. Gy. desn. et fect.
engraving
image: 35 x 41.7 cm; plate: 35 x 41.7 cm; sheet: 36.8 x 43.5 cm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2825
Published: 
[London] : H. Humphrey, 1793.
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Summary: 

Fox, as a beggar, holds out his bonnet rouge to the door of the 'Crown & Anchor' tavern to catch the shower of dishonoured paper which the talons of the Devil are scattering; smoke and flames issue from the doorway. Fox, unkempt and unshaven, his tattered coat and breeches scarcely covering his naked body, has an expression of desperate eagerness; he holds under his coat a dagger which drips blood. From his coat-pocket project a dice-box and cards, the Knave of Clubs uppermost. Behind him are his needy followers: Sheridan (a pair of pistols in his coat-pocket), M. A. Taylor, and Horne Tooke immediately behind him, also clutching concealed daggers and holding out their bonnets rouges. Close behind these are Hall the apothecary, Priestley, and Lord Stanhope, whose attitudes show that they too are clasping daggers and proffering caps for alms.

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