Characters in high life / Js. Gy. des. et fect.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
Characters in high life / Js. Gy. des. et fect.
hand colored etching
image: 34 x 24.2 cm; plate: 35 x 25 cm; sheet: 35 x 26 cm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2871
Published: 
[London] : H. Humphrey, 1795.
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Summary: 

A tall handsome lady walks diagonally forwards from left to right, her left hand on the arm of a much shorter companion with a larger head, perhaps a young girl. The latter, though her dress is simple, has a grotesquely high bunch of erect feathers in her turban, and holds a large fan. The tall lady is wearing a fashionable turban with tall feathers at the front, a high-waisted dress, with voluminous petticoats and a flowing train. Drapery is twisted round her waist and festooned about her skirts. In the background ladies with erect feathers in their hair are freely sketched. An officer in back view leads a lady by the hand, an enormous cocked hat in his left hand. Beneath the title: 'Characters in High Life. Sketch'd at the New Rooms, Opera House. "Delightful Task! to teach the young Idea how to shoot!"'

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