As a social caricature satirizing a scandalous failure of the upper-class and nobility, The Siege is a piece of entertainment that relays the scandal a la mode to its viewers. It also provides one vehicle for chastisement of its victims’ behavior.
This gallery explores how James Gillray’s caricatures of women convey the paradoxical nature of feminine power in Romantic culture. To effect his satire, Gillray utilizes ironic presentations that juxtapose discrepant images, imply a discrepancy between image and word, or create discrepancy by inverting traditional connotations of an image, person, or event. At times this means the irony exists within the frame of the print; at times within the relation between print and viewer; at times within the dialogue between the caricaturist and Romantic aesthetic paradigms; and at times of all these modes operate together.
A young, nude boy is depicted against a dark background in a bust medallion. Two cornucopias entwine above his head, spilling forth fruit and foliage as a border around the frame. Below is a smaller scene in which a teacher and pupil sit at a round table for a lesson in literacy. This smaller panel is flanked by a snake on the left and a badminton racket and birdie on the right.
This image features text which, like an illuminated manuscript, begins with a decorated letter. The "B" of the text is carried by a beggar, consequently giving a visual synecdoche of the written topic, "beggary."
This image features Joseph Johnson, a beggar and street singer, wearing a model of the HMS Nelson he built himself as a hat.
This portrait depicts Lady Catherine Montagu as a figure of social unconventionality, sporting a dress reminiscent of both the piratical and the gypsy lifestyle as romanticized by writers of the era. More specifically, she seems to be portrayed as Haidée, a character from Byron's Don Juan.
This image depicts the encounter between a pirate and a gypsy, emphasizing their common status as nomadic outcasts at once romanticized and rejected by society.
A woman travels through a landscape with two children: an infant held to her back in a shawl, and a young child who stands beside her and holds the hem of her cloak. The woman has long hair and a scarf tied around her forehead; she clutches the shawl in which the infant rides with her left hand, and extends her right to reveal a coin.
Within a rocky landscape is situated a large, cave-like dwelling constructed of leaves and branches. Six adult figures and two small children sit or squat around a smoky fire, while two additional figures approach the encampment with freshly caught fish. Most of the figures have short-cropped hair and are partially covered by hooded cloaks.
In a small, dark, cave-like dwelling, a woman with a creased brow and elongated nose sits crouched with her knees to her chest. She wears a white bonnet and large cloak, and she smokes a slender clay pipe. A dog, standing on its hind legs, licks her chin, and a second canine companion lies in the foreground beside a scroll-handled mug.
