Me teach de English Republicans to work : scene, a ploughed field / Sir John Dalrymple invt. ; Js. Gillray fecit.
One of 4 plates etched by Gillray after descriptions by Sir John Dalrymple as part of a projected series of 20 plates to be produced by Gillray in collaboration with Dalrymple; the project was, however, abandoned as a commercial failure following the publication of the 4th plate. Cf. George BM cat. entries 9180-9183.
Text by Dalrymple describing Gillray's image is printed in three columns on a separate plate below the caption title; text begins: Description - A Row of English People in Tatters, and wooden Shoes, hoeing a Field of Garlic. ...
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Print shows a group of English citizens, including John Bull and his wife, dressed in rags and wooden sabots and hoeing a field of garlic. Behind them stands a French overseer wielding a whip in each hand. In the background four other English people pull a plow, guided by a French Farmer flourishing a long Whip while a French Boy walks by the side of the yoke with a goad. A messenger of state in his habit of office, with a letter in his hand, comes to hurry on the work for the exigencies of war. At left stands the Farm Offices with a vast oak, withered, above them and a boiling cauldron and a stack of onions and turnips close by it. On the building is posted "Regulations of this Farm".
Gillray, James, 1756-1815, publisher.
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.