Cicero in Catilinam

James Sayers|Thomas Cornell

March 17, 1785 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

In November 1784, a year after King George III appointed him chief minister, William Pitt faced a general election that secured his claim to office. Here, he stands before the House of Commons, addressing his bitter rivals, Charles James Fox and Frederick Lord North, who squirm with anger at being forced onto Parliament’s Opposition Benches. Fox demonstrates disrespect by wearing his hat and chewing his fingers. North scowls and buries his head in papers. The printmaker expresses his admiration through the title which compares the youthful Pitt to Cicero, a statesman who preserved the Roman Republic by suppressing a coup d’état led by the patrician Catiline. Sayers has brilliantly reduced the complex rivalries driving British politics to a dynamic among three figures. Expressively, densely etched lines set the scene in a half-light suggestive of moral darkness.

Artist

James Sayers|Thomas Cornell

Date

March 17, 1785

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917