Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The Whore's Last Shift

Image not available
James Gillray
1756-1815

The Whore's Last Shift

[London] : Publish'd Feby. 9th. 1779, by W.Humphrey, [1779]
etching, hand colored
image: 329 x 239 mm; trimmed sheet: 359 x 256 mm
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.238
Notes
By James Gillray.
Provenance

From the library of Gordon N. Ray.

Summary

Print shows a woman standing in a sordid room. She is naked except for her shoes and ragged stockings, and is washing a garment, her 'last shift', in a broken chamber-pot supported on a broken chair. Another garment is in a broken basin on the floor; her hat and outer-garments also lie on the floor. Beside them are two pill-boxes and a paper inscribed "Leakes famous Pills". Her hair is elaborately dressed in a pyramid, decorated with feathers, flowers, and ribbons. A casement window is open, showing the roof of a neighbouring house; on the sill a cat yowls. A broadside ballad is pinned to the window recess: "The comforts of Single Life. An Old Song," and on the wall is a torn print, "Ariadne Forsaken".

Associated names
Humphrey, William, ca. 1740-ca. 1810, publisher.
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.
Classification
Department
Century prints