A View of the Grand Triumphal Pillar..

George Cruikshank

A View of the Grand Triumphal Pillar..

London , H Humphrey, London, May 12^th 1815

Etching

Original hand colouring

410 x 250 mm

£780

A rare George Cruikshank Napoleonic satire

Below the title: ‘To be erected on the Spot where Corporal Violet, alias Napoleon landed, in France on returning from Elba the 3d [actually on 1 Mar; the first information to reach London was that Napoleon landed on the 3rd or 4th; Government Bulletin of 10 Mar. (‘Examiner’, 12 Mar.)] of March 1815 in the department of La Var after a retirement of Ten Months’. The base of the pillar is formed of blocks of stone inscribed respectively ‘Murder’, ‘Plunder’, ‘Ambition’, ‘Deceit’, ‘Vanity’. On this rests a smaller slab, fronted by skulls. A third still smaller slab is the base for four cannon standing on their muzzles as props for the principal section of the ‘Pillar’. In the space between the cannon stands a drum decorated with an ‘N’ enclosed in a laurel-wreath. The cannon support an entablature on which stands Death, a skeleton with a spiky crown of daggers. In his right hand is a javelin as long as a spear on which is a bonnet rouge with tricolour cockade in the form of a fool’s cap with a dangling bell. The left foot rests on a ‘Bible’, and the left elbow on a guillotine with blood-stained blade. The points of the daggers of the crown support a rather smaller entablature on which is a gibbet. To this is tied by the wrists a young woman, blindfolded and stripped to the waist, who is being savagely flogged by Napoleon. Beside her is a shield decorated with fleurs-de-lis, and a sceptre, suggesting that she is France; No. 12541 A shows that she is Mercy. Napoleon has a scourge in each hand. His words are etched behind his head (left): “There you good for nothing jade take that for persuading the allied Sovereigns to send me to Elba—so take that! that & that!!!” To the cross-bar of the gibbet are tied (left) the sword and scales (hanging awry) of Justice, and (right) a large cornucopia from which fall many papers. From the centre of the gibbet rises a post supporting an imperial eagle, the apex of the design; from this hangs a banner on which are ‘N’ and ‘Vive L’Empreur’ [sic]. The ‘Pillar’ is on the sea-shore; on the horizon is a rocky islet on which is a tiny gibbet from which hangs a corpse, as in other prints of Elba. At the base of the ‘Pillar’ are violet plants, with serpents and toads; small bat-like creatures fly round it. The papers falling from the cornucopia are: ‘Peace with Prussia’ [not yet fallen], ‘Proposals for Peace with Sweeden’, ‘Proposals for Peace with England’, ‘Proposals to Austria’, ‘An Address to the Army & People of France’, ‘Decree for Abolishing the Slave Trade throughout France & her Colonies’, ‘New Constitution’, ‘Proposals for Peace with Russia &c &c.’