- Museum number
- 1851,0901.468
- Title
- Object: France. Britain. Freedom. Slavery
- Description
-
A design in two compartments. On the left the triumph of Necker in a land of 'Freedom', in the other that of Pitt in a land of 'Slavery'.
Necker (full face), seated in an armchair is carried on the shoulders of distinguished personages, who wave their hats. He holds in his right hand the staff and cap of 'Liberty', in his left a royal crown. He is stout and benevolent. Above his head floats a laurel wreath, irradiated, inscribed 'Necker', and adding a touch of absurdity. Under his feet are a chain and an instrument of torture resembling a harrow. The naval officer (left) wearing a star, -who holds one pole of the chair, is labelled 'Orleans'; his companion, in regimentals, is probably Lafayette; both wave their hats. In the background is a cheering crowd and the massive but broken stone wall of the 'Bastile'.
On the right Pitt, lean and arrogant, stands in profile to the left on a royal crown which bends under his weight (as in BMSat 7478). In his right hand is a banner on which are instruments of torture: a narrow, shackles, and scourges; in his left hand, which rests on his hip, are a headsman's axe and chains, the other ends of which are attached to persons who kneel humbly behind him, the most prominent of whom is the King. Other chains are attached to artisans, &c, who kneel abjectly before him. In the background are (left) a gallows from which hang seven nooses, and (right) a high scaffold on which stands a headsman with an axe. From Pitt's pocket projects a large tobacco-pipe inscribed 'Excise'. 28 July 1789
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1789
- Dimensions
-
Height: 270 millimetres
-
Width: 458 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)
On 12 July, when Necker's dismissal was discovered, wax busts of Necker and Orleans (by Curtz or 'Curtius') were carried in triumph through Paris, the populace shouting 'chapeau bas' (pl. in 'Gravures historiques ...' 1789, copy in Print Room; de Vinck, No. 1507). When Necker returned in triumph to Paris, he was given an ovation. Mme de Staël, 'Considérations sur la Rév.fr.', 1818, i. 254-5. Gillray appears to combine both occasions. Necker had an inflated reputation in England as in France, cf. BMSat 7657 (1780). Pitt's arrogance, cf. BMSats 7479, 7936, &c, is contrasted with Necker's beneficence; his transference of his tobacco tax from customs to excise is identified with slavery, as in BMSat 7634. The first of many references to the fall of the Bastille, see BMSat 7550, &c. For the contrast between 'Freedom' and 'Slavery' cf. BMSat 8145.
Grego, 'Gillray', p. 113.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1989 May-Sep, BM, Shadow of the Guillotine: Britain and French Revolution
1990 Jan-Mar, Manchester, Whitworth AG, Britain and French Revolution
1990 Jun-Sep, Vizille, Mus/Rev Francaise, Britain and French Revolution
- Acquisition date
- 1851
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1851,0901.468