Philanthropic consolations, after the loss of the slave-bill

Image not available
James Gillray
1756-1815
Philanthropic consolations, after the loss of the slave-bill
etching
image: 258 x 357 mm; sheet: 262 x 365 mm; mount: 290 x 397 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2934
Published: 
[London] : [publisher not specified], 1796.
Notes: 

Printed at lower left: Pubd April 4th, 1796.
Printmaker from BM Satires.
Library's copy has been trimmed to within plate mark and mounted on a second sheet of paper.

Summary: 

William Wilberforce and Bishop Horsley revel indecorously with two grossly caricatured black women. Wilberforce and one woman face each other sitting cross-legged on the bolsters at opposite ends of a settee; both smoke cheroots. The woman wears a large straw hat over her turban, her breasts are uncovered. On the ground by Wilberforce is a torn pamphlet: 'Tryal of. . . & . . . [names illegible] convicted of Perjury in the case of Captn Kimber'. On the right the fat bishop embraces another woman who is poised on his knee, holding up a wine-glass. Behind him and on the extreme right is a table on which are books: 'Rochesters Jests', 'Charity covereth a Multitude of Sins' (open), 'Humanity a Masque', 'Mathematick', 'Ghost of Clarence', and a paper: 'Defence of Orthodoxy, better late than never'. A caricatured black boy (left) brings in a tray of filled glasses.

Artist page: 
Classification: 
Department: