The work of James Gillray exemplifies the golden age of English political caricature, spanning from the start of the American Revolution through the four decades that followed. The popularity of Gillray's work spread beyond England to France, the United States, and Ireland. In 1806, one German journalist even called him "the foremost living artist in the whole of Europe" (Hill, Fashionable Contrasts).

Gillray was born in the London neighborhood of Chelsea on August 13th, 1756 to James and Jane Gillray. He was their only surviving child of five. The Gillrays were strict members of the Moravian Brotherhood, an extreme Protestant group that glorified death and the afterlife. Death during chiwww.childsgallery.com/artist.php...