The Guardian-Angel : the hint taken from the Revd Mr Peter's sublime idea of "an Angel conducting the soul of a child to Heaven / Js. Gillray inv. & ft.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
The Guardian-Angel : the hint taken from the Revd Mr Peter's sublime idea of "an Angel conducting the soul of a child to Heaven / Js. Gillray inv. & ft.
[London] : Pubd April 22d 1805, by H Humphrey, St James's Street, [1805]
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.242
Published: 
[London] : Pubd April 22d 1805, by H. Humphrey, St James's Street, [1805]
Provenance: 
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Notes: 

A travesty of Peters's 'An Angel carrying the Spirit of a Child to Paradise', exhibited R.A. 1783, in which the angel is a portrait of Isabella, Duchess of Rutland, and the figures have a background of clouds. .

Summary: 

Print shows Mrs. Fitzherbert, as an angel, her right arm around a little girl, her left pointing up to an irradiated and burlesqued altar, surrounded with cherub's heads. Immediately below them is the Brighton Pavilion. These angels may be recognized as (left) Windham, Grenville, Grey, Erskine, Grattan. On the right are Sheridan, Norfolk, Fox, Burdett, and Derby. The altar is lit by four large candles; over it are a Virgin and Child, 'La Sainte Veirge' [sic]. The head and hands of a demon emerge from a chalice which is flanked by vases of flowers. The rays, which descend towards Mrs. Fitzherbert, are inscribed 'Indulgences', 'Absolutions', 'Luxuries', 'Absolutions', 'Dissipations'. In Mrs. Fitzherbert's hair are three large plumes, emblem of the Prince of Wales; a cross hangs from her neck, a rosary flies outward. A large pouch inscribed 'Play-Things' is attached to her waist: from this hang a lighted censer and a rosary; from it project the head of a saint, a calvary in a bottle, a book: 'Brighton Breviary', a monstrance, St. Andrew holding his cross, a bunch of leaves.

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