Napoleon in Caricature 1795-1821
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-T2 Napoleon in caricature 1795-1821 Alexander Meyrick Broadley, John Holland Rose very Slippy- Wea thkk ippglt: ^lv °* ^ ^ \f Digitized by Google NAPOLEON IN CARICATURE Digitized by Google Digitized by Google a H UM1 ' IIK £- y \ "kry Sl iFry- Wt: y ///: k J\. Gillrav. THIi CARICATURE SHOP OF MISTRESS HUMPHREY IN ST JAMES'S STREET, LONDON, 1797*1821. Digitized by Google 1 NAPOLEON IN CARICATURE * 79 5— 1 82 < iP' e 's*** At? NtfV BROADLEY JOINT AUTHOR OF "NAPOLEON AND THE INVASION OF ENGLAND” " DUMOUR1EZ AND THE DEFENCE OF ENGLAND AGAINST NAPOLEON ” "NELSON'S HARDY: HIS LIFE, LETTERS, AND FRIENDS,” ETC. ETC. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON PICTORIAL SATIRE AS A FACTOR IN NAPOLEONIC HISTORY BY Litt.D. J. HOLLAND ROSE, Cantab. AUTHOR OF "A LIFE OF NAPOLEON," “NAPOLEONIC STUDIES” "THE MAKING OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS,” ETC. WITH NEARLY 250 ILLUSTRATIONS, 24 IN COLOUR IN TWO VOLS. —VOL. I LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMXI Digitized by Google DC 203.4 B6(o V.\ All rights reserved Printed by Ballantynf., Hanson Co. At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh Digitized by Google TO VICTOR ALBERT FRANCIS CHARLES SPENCER VISCOUNT CHURCHILL, G.C.V.O. CHAIRMAN OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY THESE VOLUMES ARE, WITH HIS PERMISSION, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR THE KNAPP JUNE l8ni I9IO Digitized by Google IW -U u4^- 1 1. - Hz-l-l i.*. ul4 . PREFACE HE subject of Napoleon in Caricature, in- structive, interesting, and practically inex- haustible as it unquestionably is, has never T yet been dealt with either as a whole or from an international point of view. There is no work in existence entirely devoted either to the history or the description of the numerous satiric prints con- cerning Napoleon Bonaparte which appeared in France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Holland, Switzerland, and Scandinavia between 1795 and 1821. Such printed information as does exist consists of isolated chapters in books like Champfleury’s Histoire de la Caricature ; Dayot’s Napoleon, Le Must'c de la Caricature en France (1838) ; Fuchs’s Die Karikatur dcr europaischen Volker ; John Grand-Cartaret’s Les Mceurs et La Caricature en Allemagne, en Autriche, en Suisse, and Les Mceurs et La Caricature en France ; Hermann’s Die deutsche Karikatur ; and Schulze’s Die Franzosenzeit in deutschen landen (1806-1815). In most cases the story of the pictorical satire relating to Bonaparte as General, Consul, Emperor, and Exile, is confined to one or two chapters wedged in somewhat clumsily between those dealing with the Revolution, and the apparently more attractive topics of the ridicule which killed Charles X., and the pear- faces which did so much to discredit Louis Philippe and pave the way for the Second Empire. Champfleury, vtt Digitized by Google viii PREFACE the most liberal of all the French authorities I have mentioned, gives the matter just one hundred small octavo pages out of five volumes ! He does very little else than summarise the achievements of Rowlandson and Gillray, and emphasise the part they played in the ultimate discomfiture of “ Little Boney.” Although hundreds of French caricatures, both for and against Napoleon, appeared in 1814 and -18T5, he does not reveal either the name of a single artist or that of a single publisher. In the Musee dc la Caricature en France, which ap- peared at the time when Louis Philippe was beginning to encourage the Napoleonic cult, not more than a dozen plates are invested, either directly or indirectly, with Napoleonic interest. In the case of Russia, Holland, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland one is compelled in despair to fall back on library catalogues or the prints to be found in public or private collections, possibly the best source of information as far as they go. Twenty years ago the late Mr. Joseph Grego is supposed to have begun a book some- what on the lines now indicated, but it never appeared, although it is referred to by M. John Grand-Cartaret. The supreme importance of the caricature, both to the historian and the student of history, is sufficiently demonstrated by Dr. Holland Rose, not only in his Life of Napoleon, but in the introduction he has con- tributed to these volumes, after a careful examination of the satiric prints in possession of the writer. In the early days of the French Revolution the power of the caricature was speedily recognised by all parties. It was this particular form of ridicule, exercised so un- mercifully in 1789 and 1790, which did much to prepare Digitized by Google PREFACE IX public opinion for the great upheaval of 1793. It soon became the favourite weapon of rival politicians. As early as 1791, we find Jean Paul Marat writing to a friend suggesting the best way of caricaturing Bailly and Lafayette. No sooner had Louis XVI. perished on the scaffold than the professional satirists of the sans-culottes turned their attention to John Bull, George III., and Pitt, In coarseness and brutality they out-Gillrayed Gillray. A number of these prints may be seen in the Bibliothdque Nationale. They continued to appear in rapid suc- cession for many years, and doubtless did much to stimulate the ideas of invasion and reprisals. The readers of M. Henry Lecomte’s Napolton el l' Empire, racontis par le Th/dtre, will realise how adroitly the dramatic stage was systematically used by Napoleon as a source of power and influence. Similar ideas prompted him to patronise and encourage the cari- caturist, and even to suggest subjects for his pencil. After his return from Egypt the French satirical draughtsmen were egged on to extend their sphere of operations to Queen Charlotte, the Dukes of York and Cambridge, to Nelson, and even less important officials, like Acton at Naples, and Drake, the too-credulous British representative at Munich. These inspired prints, however, were rather devoted to the vilification of Napoleon’s enemies than to his own direct glorification. They cannot be described in those volumes, which treat only of caricatures affecting, directly or indirectly, the personality of Napoleon or in which allusion is made to him, or to his wives, son, or family. It is only by laying down this restriction Digitized by Google X PREFACE and adhering to it that anything like finality can be hoped for. There is a wide difference between " Napoleon in Caricature ” and the “ Caricatures of the Napoleonic era.” Napoleon was certainly more extensively caricatured than any man who ever lived ; his powerful opponent, Pitt (although he died ten years before Waterloo), can fairly claim the second place in this connection, although George III., Fox, and Wellington all run him very closely. Possibly Dr. Holland Rose’s forthcoming Life of Pitt will justify the publication of some such book as Pitt in British and Foreign Caricature, a work for which abundant material undoubtedly exists. In gathering from every available source the illustrations necessary for Napoleon in Caricature, the writer has incidentally accumulated a large quantity of French prints satirising Pitt, many of which were doubtless suggested and paid for by the First Consul. Their constant theme was the lavish expenditure of British gold for the encouragement of the various Coalitions formed for the purpose of checking Napoleon’s policy of conquest and aggression. So numerous are the caricatures in which Napoleon either figures personally or is the objective of allusion that any detailed description of the whole, or even the greater part of them, becomes obviously impossible. To attempt such a task would ^seriously militate against the writer’s endeavour to enlist for this book the interest of the general reader, as well as the sympathy of the collector and the expert. Fortunately, it so happens that the lives and works of Rowlandson, Gillray, and Cruikshank (naming them according to their seniority by birth), the three principal English caricaturists of Digitized by GoogI PREFACE xi Napoleon, have been more or less adequately dealt with by five competent authors, 1 who, without laying the emphasis one would have expected on this particular sphere of activity on the part of their heroes, have, in turn, given us some kind of a pen-picture of each plate acknowledged by or ascribed to the artists in question. It therefore becomes possible to indicate occasionally the whereabouts of information and descriptive matter which lack of space renders it impossible to insert in these volumes. In a former work 2 the writer has bestowed special attention on those Napoleonic caricatures which directly relate to the threatened invasion of England (1796-1806) and the incidents of the Great Terror. It will be un- necessary to repeat what has already been said con- cerning them, although they will all find a place in the general lists given as Appendices. An endeavour will be made in these pages to bring into strong relief those caricatures which are typical of the general scheme of this form of attack on Napoleon, or which throw new light either on his public dr private life, or the state of public feeling concerning him. Prominence will be given to several prints, which, notwithstanding their obvious interest and importance, are either wholly or partially unknown. The writer has no intention to build up upon the foundations laid by the caricaturist a comic his- 1 Rowlandson the Caricaturist, by Joseph Grego. Historical Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray, by T. Wright and R. II. Evans. The IVeris Reid. George of George Cruikshank , by G. W. The Works of Cruikshank Classified and Arranged, by Captain R. J. H. Douglas, R.N. * Napoleon and the Invasion of England, by H. F. B. Wheeler and A.