A pair of original antique engravings first published in 1805, This copy is from the Bohn edition of 1851, the last time Gillray's own copper plates were used to make prints.
Ths famous pair of companion caricatures by Gillray offer a before-and-after view of a couple's relationship, satirizing the then-common practice of educating young women in superficial "accomplishments" like music and drawing solely to attract a husband, without teaching them practical skills for married life.
"Harmony Before Matrimony" depicts the couple during courtship. They appear harmonious, singing "Duets de l'Amour" and playing a harp and pianoforte together. The scene is full of romantic symbolism, including the torches of Hymen (god of weddings) and Cupid's bow and arrows. The initial harmony suggests a perfect match, though darker elements like fighting cats and a book by Ovid subtly hint at future discord.
"Matrimonial Harmonics" shows the same couple years later, in a state of domestic disharmony. The wife continues to play the piano, seemingly more interested in music than her wifely duties, while the husband has retreated behind a newspaper, completely disengaged. The room is in disarray, with a bawling baby, a barking dog, and screeching birds adding to the cacophony. The romantic symbols of the first print are now broken or inverted, signifying the death of romance and a lack of true connection.
Gillray's work contrasts the romantic ideal of "harmony" in music and society with the scientific, laborious reality of "harmonics" (the practical science of sound relations) needed to make a marriage work. The prints serve as a social critique, arguing that the limited education provided to women at the time ultimately left both sexes ill-equipped for the realities of marriage and partnership beyond the initial courtship phase.
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".
