print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.5885
- Title
- Object: Les sacrefices forces
- Description
-
A satire on the sitting of the States-General on the night of Aug. 4-5. Marie Antoinette stands at an anvil on which she is breaking the crown, her hammer raised to strike; piles of plate and jewels, with a star of the order of St. Louis, lie at her feet. Beside her the little Dauphin sits on the ground wearing an enormous cocked hat in which is a tricolour cockade. He holds a broken sceptre, and says, with one hand to his eye as if weeping, "qu'on me laisse au moins ce Joujou." The Queen says, "et a moi trois petits Soupers, par Semaine." Behind her a grinning demon blows with bellows a fire in which a piece of plate is being melted. Behind them is the hooded chimney of a smithy. On the right Louis XVI turns the screw of a stamping-machine as if making buttons, piles of which lie at his feet. He says, "Je Sacrifierai tout, pourvu que la Chasse me reste et quelques morceaus de Fer pour les terns de pluie."
Behind, a file of three men enters through a door; they carry on their heads piles of plate which they are taking to the smithy. Their leader is an aristocrat, hat in hand; the other two are members of the clergy; the last says "Stop Thief", looking to the right, towards two men with large moneybags standing in a second doorway; one of these says to the other "Emportez Vite,... à Turin et en Passant le feu à tous les Moulins." He is surreptitiously taking money-bags from a cupboard inscribed 'Cabinet de Largent pour La Nation'; some of the bags are inscribed 'Maison de Ville'. 19 Aug 1789.
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1789
- Dimensions
-
Height: 264 millimetres
-
Width: 388 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)
A satire on the surrender of feudal privileges on Aug. 4 and on the first emigration, after the fall of the Bastille, when the Comte d'Artois (probably represented here) and others of his party went into exile. E. Daudet, 'Hist. de Émmigration', 1904, i, Chap. 1. Louis XVI was noted for his devotion to mechanical occupations and to hunting, to the detriment of state affairs. Perhaps intended for circulation in France. Similar in character to BMSat 7376.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: French Revolution 1789-1799
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.5885