Rowlandson (Thomas)

, George Humphrey, 1784.
a political satire first issued by George Humphrey a month before the famous election in May 1784, here re-issued a few months later for William Humphrey’s ‘The History of the Westminster Election’. A procession heads towards a crowded hustings in front of St Paul’s, Covent Garden, led by butchers holding cleavers and marrow bones, ahead of a cheering mob. But the main focus is on three women carrying three of the four banners on view. The most clearly defined is the Duchess of Devonshire, Fox’s most prominent supporter, holding aloft a banner formed of a pair of breeches surmounted by a cockrell, and bearing the legend ‘Man of the People’.

The Westminster Election proved a huge boost to Rowlandson’s burgeoning career as a caricaturist, the political upheaval providing ample opportunities for him to lampoon both Fox and Pitt, which he did with relish, happily responding to demand from both sides..
250 by 350mm (9¾ by 13¾ inches).