Accession number
PML 146857.132
Creator
Sayers, James, 1748-1823.
Published
[London] : Published by H. Humphrey, 14th April 1795.
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Notes
Beneath title: Ombres chinoises.
Cartoon inspired by the French conquest of Holland and the Dutch fleet in Jan. 1795.
The seventh of a set of 7 prints by Sayers entitled Outlines of the opposition in 1795 collected from the works of the most capital Jacobin artists.
Item no. 132 of a collection of prints by James Sayers (PML 146857); formerly part of an album of mounted prints, now disbound.
Cartoon inspired by the French conquest of Holland and the Dutch fleet in Jan. 1795.
The seventh of a set of 7 prints by Sayers entitled Outlines of the opposition in 1795 collected from the works of the most capital Jacobin artists.
Item no. 132 of a collection of prints by James Sayers (PML 146857); formerly part of an album of mounted prints, now disbound.
Description
1 print on wove paper : etching & aquatint ; plate mark: 300 x 235 mm; sheet: 329 x 270 mm
Inscriptions/Markings
Names of the subjects depicted in pencil at foot of sheet.
Provenance
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Summary
Print shows five members of the Opposition watching "Ombres Chinoises": figures whose shadows are thrown on a sheet or screen, the scene enclosed in a circle, the figures here being three fat Dutchmen seated on the sea advance directly towards the spectators. On the shoulders of each sits a French sansculotte soldier, cadaverous and sinister; the central figure wears a cocked hat from which project cannon or trench-mortars, he holds a tricolour flag. The others wear bonnets-rouges; one (left) blows a trumpet, the other (right) beats a drum. The Dutchmen are impassively smoking pipes, two wear French cockades; from the hips of each project the mouths of cannon. The light background of the circle stands out on a tinted ground; above it is a scroll, apparently issuing from the mouth of the trumpet: "Terror the Order of the Day". Only the heads and shoulders of the spectators are visible, all in back view except that of Lansdowne on the extreme right, who says "Astonishing effect". The others (left to right) are Fox, Sheridan, Stanhope, and a bishop identified as Watson of Llandaff. Fox says: "what a fine Effect". Cf. George.
Classification
Catalog link
Department