Very Slippy Weather 10 - 1808

hand-colored-etching, print, black

toned paper

hand-colored-etching

print

handmade artwork painting

black

tile art

fluid art

coloured pencil

coffee painting

england

naive art

art nouveau

watercolour illustration

watercolor

"Very Slippy Weather," a hand-colored etching by English artist James Gillray, depicts a man sliding on a very wet and slippery street in London. The etching satirizes the poor conditions of the city’s streets. Gillray, known for his political cartoons and satirical works, uses humor and exaggeration to highlight the issues of his time. This print, created in 1808, showcases Gillray’s talent for social commentary. The artwork, currently housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, provides a glimpse into the everyday life of London during the early 19th century.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

⋮

From a series of prints about the weather, Gillray's Very Slippy Weather features the print shop of his exclusive publisher, Hannah Humphrey, at 27 St. James's Street, where Gillray lived and kept a studio. Among Mrs. Humphrey's clients was the Prince of Wales, himself the target of a number of devastating caricatures by Gillray. The prince nonetheless bought 121 prints from Humphrey's shop in one year. No one was spared ridicule in Gillray's world. Here his regular clientele is amusingly scorned, portrayed rather grotesquely gawking at the prints displayed in the shop window while a round clergyman inside considers purchasing an anti-papist print Gillray had executed a few years prior.