print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.8088
- Title
- Object: A Corsican toad under a harrow.
- Description
-
Napoleon (right) lies on his face under the sharp teeth of a harrow; two ropes are attached to it, at each of which representatives of three nations are tugging. In the foreground a British sailor hauls behind him a Spanish don in slashed tunic and breeches, feathered hat, cloak, and ruff. The third is a man of nondescript appearance wearing a cap with a drooping peak, probably intended to represent Sicily, which the British had held as an outpost against Napoleon. On the other rope the chief figure is a Prussian hussar; next him is (?) a Swede in a fur cap, and on the end of the rope a man wearing a cavalry helmet of French type is probably intended for an Austrian. These six fill the left of the design. Russia is represented by a bearded Cossack who stands on the right, prodding at Napoleon with his long spear. On the harrow sits a fat Dutchman, smoking his pipe with a fiercely preoccupied expression, with his left hand in his breeches pockets. Napoleon, much distressed, cries: "Oh this heavy Dutchman. O had I not enough to bear before!!!" Two birds swoop down from the left; one says: "I smell Carrion."
27 November 1813.
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1813
- Dimensions
-
Height: 247 millimetres
-
Width: 352 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
For the liberation of Holland see No. 12102, &c. The successes of the British Navy and Army are equated with the effects of the Russian and Leipzig campaigns.
Grego, 'Rowlandson', ii. 259. Broadley, i. 341 f. De Vinck, No. 8841 Van Stolk, No. 6222. Reproduced, Grand-Carteret, 'Napoléon', No. 265.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.8088