James Gillray

James Gillray is best known as a caricaturist and cartoonist. He is said to have turned out more than 200 caricatures. Among his famous political cartoons are the 'Anti-Saccharites' (1792), the 'Fatigues of the Campaign in Flanders' (1793) and 'The King of Brobdingnag and Gulliver' (1803). Gillray's nonpolitical cartoons include 'A Pic Nic Orchestra', 'Cookney Sportsman', 'Elements of Skating' and 'The Rake's Progress at the University', among others. His last cartoon is dated 1811. Soon afterwards, James Gillray sank into a state of early senility and died in 1815.

Incorporated in this print dated June 26, 1803, are the figures of King George III of England and the French dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte. The King, dressed in military uniform, inspects a miniature version of Napoleon, also in military uniform. He peers through a looking glass, a common satirical tool to show the inferiority of the person being observed. The king quotes Jonathan Swifts's novel, Gulliver's Travels (Voyage to Brobdingnag), to the figure of Napoleon who, like Gulliver in the story, appears in small scale. This simple scene depicts the condescending and superior view that the British held of themselves in relation to the French, especially Napoleon.