Original antique engraving by James Gillray. From the Bohn edition of 1851, using Gillray's original copper plates. With later hand colouring.
The engraving is a direct parody of Benjamin West’s iconic 1770 painting,”The Death of General Wolfe”, which depicts the death of the British commander at the 1759 Battle of Quebec. While West’s original was a heroic tribute to a fallen military leader, Gillray’s version is a biting political satire focused on the contemporary British government.
The image satirizes the passing of the Treason and Sedition Bills (often called the "Gagging Acts"), which were controversial laws introduced by William Pitt the Younger’s government to suppress radicalism during the war with Revolutionary France.
In place of General Wolfe, Gillray depicts William Pitt the Younger as the mortally wounded figure. He is shown expiring at the "moment of victory"—the passing of the legislation—while surrounded by his political allies. Henry Dundas is the figure in West's painting who is stanching Wolfe’s wound, but in Gilray's parody, he offers Pitt a glass of Port wine (a jab at Pitt’s well-known heavy drinking).
Edmund Burke & Richard Pepper Arden are shown supporting Pitt as he "dies", while George Rose & Charles Long are depicted as messengers (Treasury "runners") arriving with news of the legislative victory.
The French-inspired radicals or "sans-culottes" are shown fleeing in the background, overwhelmed by massive ministerial forces.
The title replaces "Wolfe" with "Wolf," a pun suggesting that the government leaders were predators devouring British liberties.
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".
