print; satirical print

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Object Type: print; satirical print
Museum number: 1868,0808.10390
Title: Object: L'Assemblée Nationale; - or - Grand co-operative meeting at St. Ann's Hill. -
Description: A reception given by Mr. and Mrs. Fox to various groups of the Opposition, [With one or two exceptions the identifications are those of Miss Banks; the characterization is excellent, and most are unmistakeable.] in which the arrangement has political and social significance. Three Grenvilles bow to the host and hostess; the Marquis of Buckingham, wearing his ribbon, holding hat and gold-headed cane and showing a gouty leg and foot, bends low. Next is Lord Grenville, clasping his hat to his breast, more ingratiating but less obsequious than his brother. Next is the stout Lord Temple, awkwardly imitating his uncle's gesture. Fox, wearing a sword, returns Buckingham's bow, his hand on his heart; on his right. stands the fat Mrs. Fox, curtseying, and ogling Grenville. She holds a fan on which is a profile portrait of 'Napoleone Ist'; from her pocket projects a flask of 'French Brandy', indicative of her antecedents (cf. BMSats 7370, 10589) as well as her sympathies, cf. BMSat 9892). On the extreme right. is the Prince of Wales, in back view, the greater part of his figure cut off by the margin, but unmistakable. From his pocket projects a paper: 'Henry IV. Sc. I [sic] Pr of W -l know you all, & shall . . . while.' A short fat man gazes up at him admiringly, obsequiously amused; he is identified by Miss Banks as 'Mr [i.e. General] Fitzpatrick', but resembles M. A. Taylor. Beside him is a dog, his collar inscribed 'Tommy Tattle' [? Thomas Tyrwhitt]. Mrs. Fitzherbert sits, in semi-state, in the corner of a sofa, holding a fan on which are the Prince's feathers and 'Ich Dien'; she is about to take a ticket, 'Coalition Masquerade', proffered with ingratiating vivacity by Lord Carlisle. Next Carlisle behind the sofa stands the Duke of Clarence, facing the Prince, and cruelly caricatured. Mrs. Jordan takes his right. arm, but is reading Jobson & Nell [characters in 'The Devil to pay] with the Farce of Equality' [see BMSat 7908, &c.]. Behind the pair are Col. McMahon, sly and furtive, and a large man, resembling the Duke of York. [Identified by Miss Banks as 'Mr. Tyrwitt', but Tommy Tyrwhitt was noted for his small size. ] Behind Mrs. Fitzherbert, Erskine, in wig and gown, delightedly holds up a large paper (the words partly obscured): 'Arraignments for the new Broad-Bottom'd Administration [cf. BMSat 10530], Citn Volpone [see BMSat 9892] . . . Lord Pogy [Grenville] . . . Madame Volpone .. . Cit . . . Ego [Erskine, see BMSat 9246], Lord High [Chancellor], Greyhound [Grey], H . . . Tooke . . ., Tierney' [imaginatively legible]. On the edge of the Prince's group and immediately behind Fox, his back to Mrs. Fitzherbert, stands the tall stiff Moira (regarded as politically the leader of the Prince's adherents, cf. BMSat 10252), gazing with startled anxiety at the obeisance of the Grenvilles. Behind Mrs. Fox is a family group: the Duchess of Devonshire, with a fan inscribed 'The Devonshire Delight or the new Coalition Reel', Lady Bessborough wearing a miniature of 'Nelson', and, behind them, their brother, Lord Spencer. In the foreground on the extreme left. the Duke of Bedford, wearing spurred top-boots, sits at a small table holding out an open book: 'Scheme for improving of the Old English Breed \ French Rams.' Next him sits the Duke of Norfolk, fat and gouty, resting on his knee a frothing tankard of 'Whitbreads' Entire' [see BMSat 10421], a foaming glass in his other hand. Under his chair are bottles, with one of 'Port' spilling its contents (cf. BMSat 9261), and a large military cocked hat with tricolour cockade (cf. BMSat 9168, &c). Behind Norfolk, Sheridan, gross and conspiratorial, offers his snuff-box to Windham; in his pocket is a pamphlet: 'in the Press - Coalition, a bran new Pantomime'. Behind Bedford and on the extreme right. is a group of three: Adair holds 'The Morning Chronicle'; on this are 'Verses upon the Death of ye Doctor [see BMSat 9849] by Bawb a dara' ['a dulphoola', see BMSat 9892]. He reads with concern, and is watched in consternation by Tyrwhitt Jones, who sniffs at a bag of 'Camphor' [as in BMSat 10240], and by little General Walpole. Behind these groups are those who have just entered through a tall arch-way and wait to make their bow to Fox. Close behind the bowing Lord Grenville are Lady Derby with her little husband clinging to her arm. She is handsome and massive, no longer the lank spinster of Gillray's earlier caricatures (cf. BMSat 9074); she holds up a fan inscribed 'Strolling Players in a Barn'. Behind them are the hideous Nicholls holding a double eye-glass to his single eye (see BMSat 9049, &c.) and Lady Buckinghamshire, who advances impassively. Between Tyrwhitt Jones and Nicholls is the Duchess of Gordon in tartan and with tartan drapery attached to her head by a thistle; she holds up a fan inscribed 'Over the Water with Charley [Fox]', and ogles the tall Lord Cholmondely, who looks down at her with complacent contempt. Advancing through the archway are the stiff and clumsy Salisbury holding a broken wand of office, with his wife, wearing a plumed helmet (or hunting-cap) and the dishevelled hair and high collar and stock of BMSat 9908. In the background near the wall is an isolated group in close and serious conversation: Tierney (l.) and Burdett [Miss Banks says Lord Stanhope] facing each other, with Horne Tooke full face between them. All were individualists, outside Whig circles. The room is palatial. The centre decoration of the wall is an elaborately carved candelabra on a bracket: Napoleon, crowned, naked, and grotesquely emaciated, supports on his shoulders a terrestrial globe, straddling across his large inverted Republican cocked hat (see BMSat 10247, &c.). He looks intently down at Fox. On the left. and in shadow is an oval bust portrait of George III, 'Pater Patriae'. The frame is decorated with palm-branches. On the r., in a tropical landscape, Indians kneel or prostrate themselves with gestures of adoration before an enormous rising sun. They are 'Worshipers of the Rising Sun'. The ornate frame is garlanded with grapes and surmounted by the Prince of Wales's coronet and feathers. After the title: 'Respectfully Dedicated to the admirers of a "Broad-Bottom'd-Administration."' 18 June 1804 Hand-coloured etching
Producer name: Print made by: James Gillray; Published by: Hannah Humphrey
School/style
Production date: 1804
Production place: Published in: London (England)
Materials
Technique: etching; hand-coloured
Dimensions: Height: 334 millimetres; Width: 464 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947) Prima facie a satire on the prospects of a Regency, and the intrigues and negotiations between Opposition groups and the Prince's friends, see BMSat 10252, &c, and especially on the junction between Foxites and Grenvilles which they called a 'Co-operation', avoiding the unpopular term Coalition (Stanhope, 'Life of Pitt', 1862, iv. 117). Farington notes that the guests at the Academy to attend the Prince of Wales on 27 May were in two mutually exclusive parties, one including the Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Bessborough, and Mrs. Fitzherbert, the other Lady Salisbury and others ('Diary', ii. 242). The Duchess of Gordon and Fox visited Paris at the same time; both were admirers of Napoleon, see BMSats 9892, 10007. Anticipating office, Fox had recently conveyed to Otto his hopes of being able to renew peace negotiations, see Deutsch, 'Genesis of Napoleonic Imperialism', 1938, p. 263 f. The print is prophetic of the 'Broad-Bottom Ministry', see BMSat 10531, &c. But according to George Stanley (Wright and Evans, p. ix), Fox, as First Consul, is holding a levee after the execution of the King and the proclamation of a republic. The Prince, he says, paid a large sum for the destruction of the plate, but this was secreted and is 'in the collection published by Mr. Bohn'. It was not, however, reissued in 1851. This double and hidden meaning can rest only on Gillray's authority, but is consistent with his impish and macabre jests (cf. the Oxford-Burdett identification in BMSat 9735); it is supported by the obsequious approach to Fox and his wife, and perhaps by 'Arraignments' for the new Ministry (cf. BMSat 10414). It is inconsistent with the allusion to a Regency implied in the 'Rising Sun' (son), cf. BMSat 10258, &c. For Fox as dictator, or enemy of the Crown, cf. (e.g.) BMSat 6380, &c. For St. Ann's Hill, Fox's house in Surrey, cf. BMSats 9217, 9244. Grego, 'Gillray', p. 311 (reproduction). Broadley, i. 218 f.
Bibliographic references
Location: Not on display
Subjects
Associated names: Associated with: Sir Robert Adair; Associated with: George Nugent Temple Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham; Associated with: Albinia Hobart, Countess of Buckinghamshire; Associated with: Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet; Associated with: John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford; Associated with: Henrietta Frances Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough; Associated with: Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle; Associated with: George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley; Associated with: Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby; Associated with: Elizabeth Farren, Countess of Derby; Associated with: Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire; Associated with: Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine; Associated with: Maria Anne Fitzherbert; Associated with: Right Hon Richard Fitzpatrick; Associated with: Charles James Fox; Associated with: Elizabeth Bridget Fox; Associated with: Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany and Bishop of Osnabrück; Associated with: George III, King of the United Kingdom; Associated with: Jane, Duchess of Gordon (née Maxwell); Associated with: William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville; Associated with: Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey; Associated with: Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt Jones; Associated with: Mrs Dorothy Jordan; Associated with: Sir John Macmahon; Associated with: Francis Rawdon Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings and 2nd Earl of Moira; Associated with: Napoléon I, Emperor of the French (Napoleon); Associated with: Horatio Nelson, 1st Baron and Viscount Nelson; Associated with: John Nicholls; Associated with: Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk; Associated with: James Cecil, 7th Earl and 1st Marquess of Salisbury; Associated with: Mary Amelia Cecil, Marchioness of Salisbury; Associated with: Richard Brinsley Sheridan; Associated with: George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer; Associated with: Right Hon Michael Angelo Taylor; Associated with: George Tierney; Associated with: John Horne Tooke; Associated with: Thomas Tyrwhitt; Associated with: George Walpole; Associated with: Samuel Whitbread II; Associated with: William IV, King of the United Kingdom; Associated with: William Windham; Associated with: Richard Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1868
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1868,0808.10390

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