These companion prints were originally published on successive days in June 1798, at the height of the Irish Rebellion, to influence British public opinion against the republican movement.
"United Irishmen upon Duty"
This dark, night-set print depicts the United Irishmen as violent looters and murderers rather than a legitimate political force. A farmhouse is being raided and set on fire by a group of "ruffians" wearing tricolor cockades.
A rebel with a blood-stained sword inscribed with "Liberty" is shown seizing a farmer by his neck, while another man attacks a woman nearby.
Men are shown carrying away livestock (a sow and pigs), bundles, and trunks from the burning home.
In the background, a camp flies a French tricolor flag inscribed with "Equality," suggesting the rebellion was a foreign-inspired plot.
"United Irishmen in Training"
This print shifts from menace to mockery, portraying the rebels as incompetent and ill-equipped.
A rag-tag group of volunteers practices their skills against a dummy of a British soldier made of straw and old boots.
One rebel fires a blunderbuss whose bullets fall uselessly to the ground, while another levels a spear at the dummy.
The scene takes place outside a country ale-house under a "Tree of Liberty" sign. The door is inscribed "True French Spirits," suggesting the men are motivated by alcohol and Jacobin influence.
By contrasting these "pathetic" trainees with the disciplined British army, Gillray intended to downplay the threat of the rebellion to encourage loyalist recruitment.
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".
