James Sayers (caricaturist)

James Sayers (or Sayer) (1748 – April 20, 1823)<ref name="Bryant&Henneage">Template:Cite book</ref> was an English caricaturist . Many of his works are described in the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum<ref name="DorothyGeorge">Template:Cite book</ref> which has an extensive holdings of his works collected at the time of original publication by Sarah Sophia Banks.<ref name="BMBio">Template:Cite web</ref>

He was born at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the son of a merchant captain.<ref name="EB1911">{{#if: |

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  }}{{#ifeq:  ||}}</ref> He began as clerk in an attorney's office, and was for a time a member of the borough council.<ref name="DNB">Template:Cite ODNB</ref> In 1780 his father's death provided him with a small fortune, and he went to London. As a political caricaturist he supported William Pitt the Younger. His plate of "Carlo Khan's triumphal entry into Leadenhall Street" was admitted by Charles James Fox, against whom it was directed, to have damaged his public image. Sayer was always at his best when attacking Fox, whose strong features he portrayed with remarkable power, always so as to make them convey expressions of defiant impudence or anger. Pitt, not known as a patron of the arts, provided Sayer with a place as marshal of the Exchequer court. He died in Curzon Street, Mayfair.<ref name="EB1911"/>

File:Et cadet ante aras infelix victima virgo by James Sayers.jpg

James Sayers, satirical engraving of Robert Willan based on a dispute over a pew at the Foundling Hospital

Sayer's "Carlo Khan" has been frequently reproduced. But he can only be judged with confidence after examining the collection in the British Museum, or other public libraries. His drawings, made originally with pencil on oil paper, were etched for him by the Brethertons ((James Bretherton, Charles Bretherton)). They were then sold in collections of the size of a large octavo copybook, under such titles as Illustrious Heads (1794) or Outlines of the Opposition (1795). Sayer left a complete gallery of small full-length pictures of the public men of his time, slightly caricatured. In his large plates he is inferior to James Gillray, and he never has the grace of Thomas Rowlandson, but he was closer to the truth than either.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He also wrote political propaganda as prose and verse Template:Sfn The Foundling Chapel Brawl,<ref name ="Sayers1804" >Template:Cite book</ref> Elijah's Mantle,<ref name ="Sayers1806" >Template:Cite book</ref> All The Talent's Garland,<ref name ="Sayers1807" >Template:Cite book</ref> Hints to J.Nollekens Esq<ref name ="Sayers1808" >Template:Cite book</ref>

External links

• James Sayers (British Museum Bio)