Day-Hickman: An Interpretive Study of Prints on the French Revolution

“Memorable Day at Versailles” [Image 6] is a color print, most likely the copy of an earlier version entitled, “The Triumphal Return of the French Heroines from Versailles to Paris, 6 October, 1789” [Image 32] done by, or in the manner of, Debucourt.12 In the present version, the anonymous artist has added a male Jacobin and a woman dressed in sans-culotte attire to the Debucourt original. The crude primary colors in the current print indicate a rough, inexpensive form of production, perhaps a metal or wood-block etching colored with stenciled applications. The vibrant red of the rider's jacket, the phrygian cap, and the carmagnole vest of the figure in the background, plus the red skirt and frippery of the women's dresses indicate that republican colors and symbols could have been added subsequently (after 1792) to the earlier engraving. Thus, the composition provides a jibe toward both the market women who march on Versailles in 1789 and the sans-culottes women who, in the absence of the king, continue to pursue their own sexual and political exploits. This burlesque shift in power from king to courtesans certainly questions the credibility of the sans-culotte revolution.

Cartoonists, such as James Gillray, also used bitter satire to discredit the French revolution among curious Brits. The explosion of British cartoons after 1792 reveals the extent of the political threat posed across the channel. 13 In one such print, “French Liberty, British Slavery,” [Image 23] Gillray points out the frenzied madness of French revolutionaries as compared with the opulence and prosperity of John Bull, who, at the time of the revolution, represents characteristics of the ordinary British citizen. 14 The artist presents “Liberty” personified as an emaciated bohemian seated on a stool, eating turnips and greens (animal fodder) in front of a smoking fireplace. The surrounding room is stark with a cobweb in one corner of the window and a basket of turnips on the table. A sword lies atop a violin, suggesting Liberty's relinquishment of aesthetic skills for martial pursuits. Strangely, Liberty wears the torn stockings and the culottes of a former notable or aristocrat rather than the trousers of an artisan or laborer. But the face of the French radical registers the angularity, length, and obsessed expression of unequivocal hunger. His long hair tied with a bow and bright cockade on his hat identify the starving figure as a desperate proponent of the revolution, but his clawed hands and feet suggest a closer affiliation with the animal world than with the human. Epithets in the balloon above his head laud Liberty in a series of unrelated phrases such as, “Vive l' Assemblée Nationale,” “No more Taxes,” “No more slavery,” “All Free Citizens,” and “Ve svim in Milk and Honey.” Such empty phrases reveal how Gillray endeavors to discredit utopian platitudes about the French revolution.15

Gillray's effeminate representation of “Liberty” in his pink jacket contrasts sharply with the bald and obese figure of “John Bull” dressed in royal blue, who is about to ingest his proverbial pot roast and ale on the table in front of him. The body and facial coloring of the flushed “Brit” reflect the slab of beef he is about to devour. To give full attention to his meal, the rotund gourmand has drawn the tablecloth around his neck as an erstwhile bib and discarded his wig on the side of the armchair. The legend in the balloon above his head reveals his frustration with the taxation policies of the Pitt ministry. “This cursed Ministry. They'll ruin us all with their damned taxes.” The contrast between the starving French fiend and the prosperous British glutton underlines the dearth and scarcity of material means in revolutionary

France

. A statue of Britannia holding a sack of sterling on the mantle piece behind John Bull further contrasts British wealth as compared with destitution in revolutionary

France

. Seen from a cannibalistic perspective, the British icon has devoured or is about to devour the emaciated figure of French Liberty that scarcely poses any sort of real threat to British sanguinity.

Gillray produces another vivid caricature of revolutionary

France

in his depiction of “French Democrats Surprising the Royal Runaways.” [Image 9] As in “French Liberty British Slavery,” Gillray emphasizes a physio-psychological contrast between the sinuous (starving) and emaciated bodies of the French revolutionaries who invade the French royal quarters on June 20, 1791 and the pompous, ample, and lethargic physique of the king and queen. But Gillray also indicts the corpulent king (decked out in a red vest, blue jacket, and yellow pants) and queen (wearing an elegant British hat with pink ribbons) who raise their hands in dismay at the unexpected invasion by a revolutionary hoard wearing tricolor cockades. The invaders' elongated faces and enraged expressions bear close resemblance to the distracted figure of “French Liberty” [Image 23] in the previous Gillray print. Carrying brooms, mallets, muskets, pistols, bayonets, knives, and swords, the unruly band threatens the king and queen, and points a bayonet toward the bottom of the indisposed dauphin, who is having a tantrum on the floor. While the leader of the troop, sporting aristocratic culottes, directs his sword and musket toward the head of the king, a frantic gunner behind him sticks out his tongue and points his “provocative” weapon directly at the queen. Another figure in the center background appears about to decapitate himself with two knives during the frenzied capture of the royal truants. Though the invading troops address their unrestrained rage toward the king and queen, the royal couple appears to respond with perplexity to the unexpected furor of their captors. The British satirist thereby pokes bitter fun at the irrationality and violence of the revolutionary hooligans, while at the same time underscoring the indolence, ineptitude, and cowardice of the beleaguered royal family. Through both political and gender satire, Gillray poses British prosperity as a preferred alternative to a cowardly French monarchy beset by a deranged band of starving revolutionaries.

12 Jean Adhémar, Graphic Art in the 18^th Century (New York, Toronto, London: McGraw Hill, 1964) 173-174: Highly influenced by the theories of Lavater who maintained a natural correspondence between physiognomy and moral character, Debucourt conveyed his message through facial types, expressions, and suggestive poses that he emphasized in his paintings and prints. The current print imitates the element of sexual intrigue apparent in Debucourt's earlier engraving, but does not duplicate the more ornate and effete rococo style.

13 Tamara L. Hunt, Defining John Bull: Political Caricature and National Identity in Late Georgian England (Cornwall, England: Ashgate Books, 2003) 149: In order to divert British discontent in the 1790's due to excessive tight purse strings and additional taxes, “supporters of the status quo undertook propaganda efforts to convince the lower and middle classes that it was in their own best interests to remain loyal to the state, even if their burdens and sacrifices seemed unreasonable. This helped fuel an explosion of prints featuring John Bull . . . .” While 30 prints about John Bull were produced from 1784 to 1792, they tripled after the republican revolution in France from 1793 to 1800.

14 Adhémar, Graphic Art in the 18^th Century, 94: James Gillray distinguished himself as a skilled draftsman and observer of human foibles. He developed satirical cartoons about the royal family in England, Napoleon Bonaparte, and satirical studies of the French revolution. For further information on representations of John Bull during the revolutionary period see Hunt, Defining John Bull, 149ff.