Browse Items (1079 total)
British Liberty Tree
These painted engravings ridicule the unrest wrought by French revolutionaries by contrasting French subversion with British stability. The "British Liberty Tree" in this image is assigned to the mock Latin genus of "Stabilissimus," while the more…
A Foreign Tree
These painted engravings ridicule the unrest wrought by French revolutionaries by contrasting French subversion with British stability. The "British Liberty Tree" (depicted in the preceding image) is assigned to the mock Latin genus of…
Two Peasants Repairing a Cart
This image of peasants repairing a cart demonstrates both the hard work done by cultivators and their fragile economic situation, which could easily be imperiled by a broken cart. Under such circumstances, poor people constantly repaired durable and…
Commemorating the Revolution on Chinaware
The execution scene appeared on a plate. Even were this simply a souvenir that no one intended to actually eat from, this piece of china reveals fantastic revolutionary anger. Having a picture in crockery of an execution, even in a society where…
Gallic Declaration of War, or, Bumbardment of all Europe
This scatological English cartoon mocks France’s claim that it was going to war for "liberty," suggesting instead that France’s body politic is ill and that England needs to fight back to defend itself from such sickness. The figures in this drawing…
Louis the Sixteenth, King of France and of Navarre
This portrait demonstrates Louis at the height of his power and authority on the eve of the Revolution.
The Royal and Imperial Family of Napoleon, the Greatest and First with That Name
The remainder of the text on this image reads: Emperor of the French, King of Italy, and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. The military flags make clear the connection between military conquest and imperial glory.
Oath of the New Horaces
Social discrimination against old regime elites continued in this parody of a famous painting prior to the Revolution, The Oath of the Horatii, by Jacques–Louis David which focused on the courage of three brothers who thrust their arms bravely…
Description of the Chouans and other Counterrevolutionaries
The counterrevolution was a very large movement that would over time engulf different parts of France from 1793 into the Napoleonic period. But it was not one thing, for many regions of different ideologies were involved. The most serious was the…
