10. James Gillray
(1757-1815)

The Bulstrode Siren

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Gillray: The Bulstrode Siren

The Bulstrode Siren

Etching, engraving & roulette, 1803, 359 x 258 mm. Before entering the Royal Academy in 1778, Gillray had apprenticed to a letter engraver, from whom he ran away to join a company of strolling players. He made this print during a time when amateur music was in vogue as a pretension to gentility. Many must have been tortured by this fashion just as this conspicuously plumed temptress sweetly tortures her gentleman caller with the soft melody akin to a penetrating fog horn. A fine impression on wove paper showing the borderline and text; another cartoon verso.