Making Decent;0- i.e. – Broad-bottomites getting into the Grand Costume.

James Gillray

Making Decent;0- i.e. – Broad-bottomites getting into the Grand Costume.

London, H. Humphrey Feb. 20^th 1806

Etching

Original hand-colouring

250x350mm

£1200

One of Gillray’s best known images. A scene in a dressing room, with members of the new Ministry dressing for office. On the left the bloated ragged figure of Fox and the tall, skinny, balding Grey shave in front of a mirror surmounted by the Prince of Wales’ Feathers and crest, Vansittart as a valet puffs hair powder over Sidmouth, in the foreground little Lord Henry Petty struts admiringly in his Chancellor’s gown, Windham sits in a small bathtub, scrubbing his dirty feet, and in the centre the enormously broad bottomed figure of Grenville, in shirt and bagwig, hitches up his huge breeches. On the right Sheridan washes his hair, his Harlequin suit hanging on the wall, Lord Spencer washes his hands, Erskine tries a broad brimmed hat over his wig, and the neat handsome figure of the Duke of Bedford pulls on his top boots, his hand on Tierney’s shoulder as he too pulls on his boots. The Mace, carelessly reversed, leans against a table. BM 10531.