- Museum number
- 1861,1012.46
- Title
- Object: The King of Brobdingnag, and Gulliver. -Vide. Swift's Gulliver: Voyage to Brobdingnag
- Description
-
George III, half length, stands in profile to the left, a holding a tiny Napoleon on the palm of his right hand, and inspecting him through a spy-glass. He says: "My little friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable \ "panegyric upon Yourself and Country, but from what I can \ "gather from your own relation & the answers I have with \ "much pains wringed & extorted from you, I cannot but con- \ "-clude you to be one of the most pernicious, little - odious \ "-reptiles, that nature ever suffer'd to crawl upon the surface of the Earth." He wears military uniform with a bag-wig. The only background is a dark cloud-like shadow across the lower part of the design. 26 June 1803
Hand-coloured etching and aquatint
- Production date
- 1803
- Dimensions
-
Height: 357 millimetres
-
Width: 256 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
A famous plate. Lord Holland notes (MS.) that the print was shown to the King who exclaimed 'quite wrong quite wrong no bag with uniform!!!' The design may derive from Gillray's 'Connoisseur examining a Cooper' (BMSat 8107). See also BMSat 10227. George III in profile scrutinizing Napoleon through a glass becomes a favourite caricature subject.
Grego, 'Gillray', p. 298. Wright and Evans, No. 286. Broadley, i. 176 f. Hennin, No. 12845. Reprinted, 'G.W.G.', 1830. Reproduced, Grand-Carteret, Napoléon, No. 74. Described, Thackeray, 'The Four Georges', 1861, pp. 152 ff.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2005 July-Nov, London, National Maritime Museum, 'Nelson and Napoleon'
2015 Feb-Aug, BM, Rm 90, Bonaparte and the British
2018-19 Sep-Jan, BM, I Object
2019 11 May-20 Jul, Pontefract Museum, Wakefield, The golden age of satire? Late-Georgian satirical prints
2019 27 Jul-6 Oct, Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, The golden age of satire? Late-Georgian satirical prints
2019-2020 12 Oct-12 Jan, Beacon Museum, Whitehaven, The golden age of satire? Late-Georgian satirical prints
- Acquisition date
- 1861
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1861,1012.46