A Bravura Air, Mandane, [with Bill for the opera Artaxerxes] by James Gillray - 1801/1803

Vibrantly hand-colored caricature of Elizabeth Billington during her performance in the role of Mandane for the opera Artaxerxes by Thomas Augustine Arne. Gillray here is satirizing Billington for the use of placing her hand on her bossom during moments that require more effort than others. (The British Museum, Curator M. Dorothy George's comments in object description, 1851,0901.1073.) This print is framed together with an advertisement bill for Arne's Artaxerxes to be performed Wednesday, 7th September, 1803. This performance was followed by a "new grand national pantomime" entitled Magic of the British Liberty; or the Desegregation of Bonaparte. This advertisement was printed for Knott and Lloyd, Birmingham. Housed in gilt wooden frame with warm grey mat boards and black trim around window. Frame: 28.25 x 22 inches; Windows: 9.25 x 14 inches // 10.25 x 14 inches.





'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
Mrs. Billington's return to London, in 1801, caused a sensation. Her first appearance was at Covent Garden in the part of Mandane in Arne's opera of 'Artaxerxes'. 'Her new bravura song at the end of the first act . . . astonished the audience . . .' 'Her en bon point is a little beyond the ton of the day; but her figure is grand; and derives from her deportment, step, and manners, an uncommon interest.' 'Lond. Chron.', 6 Oct. 1801. She is here satirized for her 'inelegant' attitude 'of pressing her hands against her bosom in passages that require exertion. It never fails to communicate ideas of labour, struggle and pain.' 'Secret History of the Green Room', ii. 75 (quoted 'London und Paris'). S