"Design for the Naval Pillar" (subtitled "Britannia Victorious") was first published on 1 February 1800 by Hannah Humphrey and the piece serves as a brutal political parody mocking the establishment's contemporary desire to build a massive public monument celebrating British naval victories over Revolutionary France.
The print depicts a ridiculously cluttered, over-the-top monument standing on a rock amid a stormy sea:
Britannia is perched inside a large seashell at the very top, holding a figure of Victory in her hand. She holds a trident and a shield decorated with the Union Jack, flanked by a lion and a globe.
The main pillar is heavily carved with naval imagery mixed with mocking French Revolutionary symbols, such as tricolour cockades, clogs, sans-culottes, and guillotines.
The square foundation is supported by flawed allegorical figures, including Fortitude leaning on a broken pillar and Justice holding heavily unbalanced scales.
A central plaque reads: "To Perpetuate the Destruction of the Regicide Navy of France and the Triumph of the British Flag".
During the French Revolutionary Wars, a real-world committee was formed to fund a permanent "Naval Pillar". High-profile proposals were submitted—including a massive 230-foot statue of Britannia on Greenwich Hill by sculptor John Flaxman.
Gillray used his print to attack the idealism, over-the-top patriotism, and financial excess of these government projects. Instead of portraying Britannia as a stoic, infallible protector, he depicts her as a compromised figure reigning over political corruption and national failures, turning a blind eye to the chaos below.
Gillray was one of five children, and the only one to survive to maturity. In 1770 he was apprenticed to Harry Ashby, a London writing in engraver, and five years later W. Humphrey published a few of Gillray's illustrations including satirical works. By the time Gillray commenced his career satire was old, but personal caricature was in its infancy. Other exponents in this form of art were soon overshadowed by Gillray's superior craftsmanship. His figures were full of vitality, titillating and reflective of some political crisis or private scandal. As his popularity increased so did demand by the public to see more of his work. In the rapidly changing politics of the late18th century he would produce a plate in twenty-four hours. Although sometimes overlooked his speech bubbles were elaborate and Gillray would spend considerable time composing and redrafting the text.
Between 1791 to 1807 his career continued successfully in association with William and Hannah Humphrey. There after Gillray's health began to suffer. He eventually slipped into madness and died shortly before the Battle of Waterloo on June 1st 1815. Hannah, who had a close relationship with him nursed Gillray through out his final years and following his death the copper plates then formed part of Hannah's estate when she died in 1818. The executor's of Hannah's estate sold Gillray's painstakingly worked plates for there second hand copper weight. Hearing of this, the then publisher, Bohn who had previously expressed an interest in buying the plates set about purchasing them from a variety of different sources. Eventually acquiring over 500. In 1851 Bohn republished the engravings in a large folio volume, "The Works of James Gillray".
