Patience on a Monument was first published on 19 September 1791 by Hannah Humphrey. The print is a biting social caricature that uses classical and literary references to ruthlessly mock a prominent member of high society, Lady Cecilia Johnston.
The title directly parodies a famous line from William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (Act II, Scene IV):
"...She sat like patience on a monument, smiling at grief."
While Shakespeare used the phrase to describe quiet, dignified, and heartbreaking silent grief, Gillray completely upends this romantic imagery. Instead of a beautiful classical statue, he presents a crude, unflattering reality.
The print mimics the design of a grand, pyramidal funerary monument built against a stone wall, but filled with grotesque, comedic details.
Lady Cecilia Johnston is depicted in sharp profile as a thin, weathered, almost witch-like figure. She is sitting on a large close-stool (a 18th-century toilet/chamber pot) rather than a royal or classical throne. Her chin rests grimly in her hand in a mock pose of deep, stoic contemplation.
In her other hand, she holds a piece of torn toilet tissue bearing the word "Tranquility," suggesting her peace of mind has been completely shredded.
Standing right behind her toilet is a tiny Cupid (representing Hymen, the god of marriage). He is holding his traditional marriage torch upside down while tightly pinching his nose to escape the foul smell.
At the base of the monument lie bones and skulls. One live-looking face next to the bones stares up with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, breaking the somber illusion of a tomb.
The stone foundation of the monument features an altered verse adapted from Alexander Pope’s Ode for Music on St. Cecilia's Day:
"By Patience, minds an equal temper know... Patience can soften pain to ease, And make despair and madness please; This the divine Cecilia found, And to her Husbands ears, confind the sound."
The poem heavily implies that Lady Cecilia’s "patience" was actually a cover for her notoriously sharp tongue, and that her poor husband bore the brunt of her regular, unglamorous outbursts.
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".
