Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Tom Paine's nightly pest / Js Gy design et fect pro bono publico.

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James Gillray
1756-1815

Tom Paine's nightly pest / Js Gy design et fect pro bono publico.

Published

[London] : Pub. 26th Novr 1792, by H. Humphrey, No. 18 Old Bond Street, [26 November 1792]

etching with aquatint
image: 247 x 340 mm; plate: 250 x 352 mm; sheet: 267 x 361 mm
Peel 2803
Notes
Title from caption.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

Paine lies asleep on straw on a ramshackle wooden bedstead, covered by his coat. He wears a cap inscribed "Libertas". He lies diagonally from left to right, facing the spectator. On the head of his bed are drawn the profile heads, with wings, of his Guardian Angels: Priestley (left) and Fox (right). His head rests on a bundle of straw round which is a striped and torn (?) flag inscribed "Vive l'America". His arm lies across an open book: "The Rights of Farthing Candles proving their Equality with the Sun & Moon. And the necessity of a Reformation in the Planetary System." From his coat-pocket protrudes a pamphlet: "Common Sense or Reason destructive to Free Government." On a table by his side (right) are a rat with its head caught in a trap, writing materials, and a paper: "The Golden Age The Art of Equalizing the Property of Princes & Pikemen."

Associated names
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.
Classification
Department