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Abstract
Gillray lived at a time that was ripe for satirical print makers—with the French Revolution, the dissolute lifestyle of the Prince of Wales, the little understood madness of King George, and the rise of Napoleon (who is reduced to a figure of Lilliputian dimensions in many of Gillray's prints). The most shocking print in the exhibition is A Family of Sans Culottes Refreshing after the Fatigues of the Day (1789), which shows a child being basted by a fire and an innocent man's eyeball extracted from a socket and eaten as a delicacy. A Sale of English Beauties, in the East Indies (1786)The British Museum, London John Bull taking luncheon—or—British Cooks, cramming Old Grumble-Gizzard, with Bonne-Chere (1798)The British Museum, London Gillray was a contemporary of London's other great print maker, William Blake, yet the two artist's work could not be more different.