Hero's recruiting at Kelsey's; - or - guard-day at St James's

Size 26cm x 36cm

Originally published by Hannah Humphrey etched by James Gillray from 'The Genuine Works of James Gillray, engraved by himself. Thomas McLean edition on heavy rag-paper from the original copper plates printed 1830.

As the war with France, then in its fourth year, proceeded, and the threat of a French invasion seemed ever imminent, soldiers were an increasing presence in the lives of Englishmen. And that presence is reflected in Gillray's work in 1796/97, including The Arch-Duke (15 November 1796), Supplementary-Militia, Turning-Out for Twenty Days Amusement (25 November 1796), St George's Volunteers Charging Down Bond Street (1 March 1797), The Leadenhall Volunteer (5 March 1797), and, in this case, Hero's Recruiting at Kelsey's. . ..

Because of low pay, severe punishments, and the occupational hazards of the military professions, recruiters had been a necessary and familiar sight in Britain to supplement volunteer and mercenary forces from as far back as 1706 when Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer was first staged in London. And it is probably no accident that even as Gillray's print was being prepared, the play was being revived at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane with Mrs Jordan, the mistress of the Duke of Clarence, playing the role of the heroine, Sylvia. The central figure Hero's Recruiting is based on Thomas James Birch (c.1768-1829) who, according to Tracy Chevalier, was "from the Bosvile family who owned an estate in Yorkshire. A lifelong military man, he was a member of the Life Guards, retiring in 1810." He was made a Captain of that regiment in February of 1798 and a Major & Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1808. The National Gallery has a portrait caricature of him by Dighton with the same sharp features and extended chin dating from around 1802. And Gillray includes him again a few months after Hero's Recruiting in another military print, Loyal Souls, or a Peep into the Mess Room at St James's (14 November 1797).

Gillray signed the print "ad vivam" which technically means "to the life" or life-like. But for Gillray it usually means that he made a sketch of one or more of the figures from actual observation. According to Draper Hill, Kelsey's was located at No. 7 St. James's Street, which would have put it just 500 feet from the new location of Hannah Humphrey's shop at No. 27. So Gillray would have had an ample opportunity to capture the clientele and atmosphere at Kelsey's.

And he does that brilliantly—from the assortment of fruits and fruit offerings in the window, to the plump matron behind the counter, to the plush stools for the soldiers after the parade of troops on Guard Day, to the passing coach of some notable observed by the spectators at the windows across the street—Gillray brings it all vividly to life.

At the same time, he displays his genius for design by putting the tall, thin figure of Captain Birch between the short and fat figures of the boy soldier whose feet do not touch the floor and the oval-shaped, splay-footed, guard with his hands behind his back. Like his earlier A Spencer & a Thread-Paper, each of Gillray's figures provides an ironic perspective on the other—tall/short, thin/fat. A similar, mutual irony is provided by the contrast between the angularity of the figures on the left (their torso and knees duplicating the right angles of the window panes) and convexity and concavity of the figure on the right. But lest that contrast interfere with the sense of the integrity of the whole, Gillray use the curves and opposing angles of the bicorne hats to form a container encompassing the fat and thin soldiers.

And in a final gesture of delightful design and parody, Gillray must have said to himself, "There is an empty space in the left foreground pointed to by Captain Birch's sword. This is a print about a fruiterer. Let me parody a dutch still life with a partially peeled orange and a pottle of strawberries." I can imagine him smiling. (www.james-gillray.org)