‘I hope the day will never come when I shall neither be the subject of calumny or ridicule, for then I shall be neglected and forgotten’, is how Samuel Johnson greeted the news that James Gillray had caricatured him as Dr Pomposo. In Georgian London, a caricature was a fast-track to celebrity. And, as described
David Bromwich · You are not Cruikshank: Gillray s Mischief · LRB 21 September 2023 lrb.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lrb.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
From cutting caricatures of high-profile women to affectionate depictions of Britain’s “heaviest man”, Freya Gowrley considers why 18th-century satirists were so fixated with fatness