Royalty and celebrity
George III, aged 72 1810. Reigned 80 years. A Royal jubilee, Robert Dighton, 1810, Coloured etching
It was with astonishment that visitors to London in the eighteenth century saw caricatures of the British sovereign, so openly displayed.
No stratum of society was sacrosanct and the shortcomings of well known figures have always provided popular entertainment as well as attracting the keen eye of satirists. Indeed the appearance in a satirical print was a sign of fame or infamy, to the point where some political figures deliberately sought to be portrayed.
Satirical imagery of the royal family such as the below etching of George III, flourished in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with an irreverence that shocked and amused visitors to London.