A New Way to Pay the National Debt

A New Way to Pay the National Debt

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James Gillray

This print, quite critical of King George III and Queen Charlotte, shows them receiving a wheelbarrow of money from Pitt. They stand before the treasury from which they have filled their pockets to overflowing. On the walls of the treasury behind them are tattered handbills exhorting economy and charity. The lack of charity is also represented by the quadriplegic sailor, begging at the lower left. The print was occasioned by Pitt's proposal to discharge the debts on the civil list, which was debated two weeks before the publication of the print. At the right the Prince of Wales, notorious for his debts and in rags, is offered a £200,000 loan by the son of the French Duc d'Orléans, an arrangement that deeply disturbed some British because of implications of French influence.
Artist
James Gillray
(Scottish, 1757 - 1815)
Title
A New Way to Pay the National Debt
Date
1786
Medium
Hand-colored etching
Dimensions
16 5/8 x 20 1/2 in. Overall
Credit
Gift of Harold E. Kubly
Accession No.
55.4.4
Classification
Prints
Geography
Scotland

Related

1955, gifted by Harold E. Kubly (Madison, WI) to the University of Wisconsin-Madison; 1967, transferred to the Elvehjem Art Center [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Madison Art Center. "Six Centuries of Prints and Drawings From The University of Wisconsin Collections." Madison, WI: The Madison Art Association, 1965.
  • Wright, Thomas and R.H. Evans. "Historical & Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray; Comprising a Political and Humorous History of the Latter Part of the Reign of George the Third." New York/London: Benjamin Blom, 1968. p. 16, cat. no. 18

  • British Satire from Hogarth to Cruikshank: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 9/15/2001–11/4/2001
  • Six Centuries of Prints and Drawings from the University of Wisconsin Collections: Madison Art Center, 11/21/1965–12/11/1965
  • Old Master Prints: The Paine Art Center, 11/30/1963–1/7/1964

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