The Duke of Portland and Mrs. Billington sit side by side on a settee. She sings to him, he listens ecstatically, with clasped hands, his head turned in profile to the right, staring with amorous intensity. She holds her music, but looks alluringly at the Duke. Her notes ascend until lost in the shaded upper part of the design. Portland wears an old-fashioned court suit and Garter ribbon. He is thin except for gouty swollen legs and feet. At his feet is an open music-book (BM). / Mrs. Billington was at this time residing with the Duke of Portland at his mansion at Bulstrode (Wright/Evans).
Title from item.
BM Satires 10168; Wright/Evans 526
Additional information accompanying item: From the 1824 Gillray collection of copies, etched and published by John Miller and W. Blackwood.
Notes (acquisition):
Gift; Louis Black; December 1953
Notes (date):
Date from item.
Reproduction. Date indicated is Gillray's original publication date.
Notes (citation):
Stephens, Frederic George, George, Mary Dorothy. "Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum." British Museum Press, 1870, London.
Wright, Thomas, R. H. Evans. "Historical and descriptive account of the caricatures of James Gillray." Benjamin Blom, 1968, New York.
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