Original antique engraving by James Gillray originally published in 1803. This print is from the Bohn Edition of 1851.
This print is loosely based on an incident in November 1802 involving Ludwig, Count Starhemberg, Austrian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to England. The story was likely recounted to Gillray directly by Starhemberg himself who was a frequent customer of Hannah Humphrey's shop.
According to the story, the diplomat had concluded a longer than usual summer vacation in his native Austria, and he was on his way back to London, making stops along the way in Munich, Stuttgart, and Paris. But when he got to the Austrian Embassy hotel in Paris, he found a note from French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Talleyrand expressing Buonaparte's displeasure with him, and his insistence that Starhemberg leave Paris immediately. There was no specific reason given, but Starhemberg could only assume that it was revenge for expressing his unguarded opinions of the First Consul in conversations outside Paris.
Gillray has great fun with the story, creating for the first time an image of an increasingly paranoid and insecure "little Boney" dwarfed by his bodyguards, who cannot contain his vexation with Starhemberg's impertinence.
Meanwhile Starhembeg is unperturbed, casually taking snuff, as his coach speeds on its way back to London.
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".
