Edited by Silvia Beltrametti and William Laffan
Single sheet satire – caricature – is one of the most distinctive and original art forms to emerge from England in the eighteenth century. Artists such as James Gillray (1756-1815) and Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) combined devastating wit with graphic brilliance to lampoon the great and create timeless images inspired by moments of fleeting controversy or scandal. Availing of a legal loophole, under which copyright law of images did not apply to Ireland, a business of pirating caricatures by London satirists flourished in Regency Dublin. The work of these plagiarists – which is paradoxically inventive and vibrant – as well as prints of Irish subject matter by English caricaturists such as Gillray, is the subject of the book Artists and Pirates: Satirical Prints in Georgian London and Dublin. The book includes essays by the editors, as well as by James Kelly (Professor of History at Dublin City University). David Fleming (Professor of History at the University of Limerick) and Ben Casey (PhD candidate, University of Maynooth).
This is a joint publication with Centro Di of Florence.
