Dido in despair / Js. Gillray inv. & fect.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
Dido in despair / Js. Gillray inv. & fect.
London : Pubd Feby 6th 1801 - by H Humphrey No 27 James's Street, [1801]
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.507
Published: 
London : Pubd. Feby. 6th. 1801 - by H. Humphrey No 27. James's Street, [1801]
Provenance: 
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Notes: 

Text flanking caption title: "Ah, where, & ah where, is my gallant Sailor gone" ? - "He's gone to Fight the Frenchmen, for George upon the Throne, "He's gone to Fight ye Frenchmen, t'loose t'other Arm & Eye, "And left me with the old Antiques, to lay me down, & Cry.

Summary: 

Print shows an obese Lady Hamilton rising from a curtained bed, arms and one leg extended in a gesture of despair. Behind her in the shadowed depths of the bed the night-capped head of her husband, rests on the pillow. She looks, weeping, towards an open sash-window through which is seen a fleet sailing towards the horizon. In the window is a cushioned window seat on which (besides a stocking) is an open book: 'Studies of Academic Attitudes taken from the Life'; on one page is a nude woman lying in sensual abandonment. On the right against the curtains of the bed is a dressing-table on which, besides toilet-articles, are a flask of 'Maraschino', a 'Composing Draught', and a pot of 'Rouge à la Naples'. On the carpeted floor are objects from Sir W. Hamilton's collection, with an open book: 'Antiquities of Herculaneum Naples Caprea &c. &c.'; on the right page is a satyr chasing a nymph. They include an oval gem, a figure of a squatting monster, headless, the base inscribed 'Pri[apus]', a laughing bust of 'Messalina', statues of a Venus and a Satyr, coins or medals, one inscribed 'Ovid', another 'Tibertius'. In front of Lady Hamilton are the slippers she has kicked off, and a garter inscribed 'The Hero of the Nile'.

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