A Tub for the Whale!
James Gillray (published by Hannah Humphrey (English, c. 1745-1818))
published March 14, 1806
- Medium
- Hand-colored etching and aquatint on cream wove paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image: 23.2 × 35 cm (9 3/16 × 13 13/16 in.); Plate: 24.5 × 35.4 cm (9 11/16 × 13 15/16 in.); Sheet: 25.8 × 37.5 cm (10 3/16 × 14 13/16 in.)
- Culture
- England
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Thomas F. Furness in memory of William McCallin McKee
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
James Gillray’s political satires often included biblical and nautical references. This etching bears a lengthy secondary title, which may have clarified the subject matter for contemporaries: “Representing an Empty-Barrel tossed out to amuse the great Leviathan John-Bull, in order to divert him from instantly laying violent hands upon the new Coalition Packet.” The monstrous whale with “John Bull” horns symbolizes the British nation (as personified by the heroic and comedic archetype, John Bull), who attacks a packet boat steered by an unpopular new political group.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
