L'Entree

Image not available
James Gillray
L'Entree
[London?] : [publisher not identified] , [1781]
etching, hand colored
image: 275 x 373 mm; plate mark: 283 x 379 mm; sheet: 306 x 395 mm
Peel 2340
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Inscription: 

Inscribed in ink in lower margin, "Signor Vestris" and "Ld. Cholmondeley", and "M Banke[?]" in pencil.

Notes: 

Title from item.
Imprint at bottom of image is partially illegible.
A reversed copy after a print by Gillray; see "Regardez moi", BM satires no. 5911.

Summary: 

Print shows Gaetan Vestris, at left, giving a dancing lesson to a gigantic goose with a human head and long pigtail queue, intended to represent Lord Cholmondeley. They face each other in profile. Vestris stands with his legs together, chest thrown out, his arms curved. On a stool behind the goose is an open book inscribed "Electrical E. E. L."; on the ground at its feet is another inscribed "The Torpedo. Dedicated to Ld------C------". In the wall which forms the background are two sash-windows, with a door at far right round which a grinning youth, probably a servant, is looking. On the wall are half length portraits: three in ovals of elderly ladies in profile, one of a clergyman, full-face, wearing a biretta, his left hand on a book. There is also a picture of Fox, with a fox's head, seated opposite Cholmondeley; they are throwing dice. Fox appears satisfied, the other clenches his fist and exclaims in anger. A devil is climbing on the top of the frame and holds out a claw to grab the head of Fox. On the picture are the words "A Nick by God".

Century: 
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