Tim Clayton

Mar 21, 2024 | publicdomainreview.org | Peter Walker |Tim Clayton |Richard Godfrey |Mark Hallett

Of all the caricatures of Napoleon Bonaparte, representations of the French emperor as a miniscule megalomaniac continue to haunt the historical imagination to an unparalleled degree. Peter W. Walker searches for the origins of “Little Boney” in the early 19th-century caricatures of James Gillray, the English illustrator who took Napoleon down a peg by diminishing his reputation and scale to the point of absurdity. Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing.

Nov 23, 2023 | boomers-daily.com | Tim Clayton

Apollo Magazine (November 23, 2023) – Political satire is by its nature ephemeral: it reacts to events and personalities and moves quickly on. Yet James Gillray’s (1756–1815) excoriating attacks on William Pitt, Charles James Fox, George III, the Prince Regent and a whole cavalcade of Georgian public figures retain their sting more than two centuries after he dreamed them up. In his sumptuously illustrated study of Gillray, Tim Clayton explains why.

Sep 13, 2023 | lrb.co.uk | Tim Clayton |Alice Loxton |Joseph Monteyne |David Bromwich

Tim Clayton’s​ book is a magisterial study of a great popular artist: a full-scale interpretation of James Gillray’s output of satirical prints, and a biography that warrants comparison with the best ever done on an 18th-century artist. It has been furnished with gorgeous reproductions, along with close-ups that illuminate Gillray’s care for visual detail and his uninhibited verbal wit.