George Cruikshank
A R-Y-L Visit to a Foreign Capital or. The Ambassador not at home — !! – April 1817.
London, G. Humphrey September 15th 1817
Etching
Original hand-colouring
285x405mm
£380
A caricature satirising the Princess of Wales’s unexpected descent on the British Embassy at Vienna. Princess Caroline, seated in an enormous crested carriage drawn by six horses, draws up before the arched doorway of the British Embassy. She wears an turban and aigrette, with an indecently decolletée dress, and is seated beside the hairy figure of Pergami, who wears flamboyant Hussar’s uniform. On the forward seat is her adopted son Willy Austin and Pergami’s sister the ‘Countess’ Oldi. Two turkish soldiers sit behind with drawn swords and a dandifid italian valet and a cheeky turkish servant sit on the box seat. The postilions wave their whips and a liveried outrider shouts to the astonished porter that they need seven beds and have thirteen servants. A stout peasant woman and a little boy watch the cavalcade with astonishment. Francis 1st had incurred the Regent’s gratitude by refusing to receive the Princess when she made an unexpected visit to Vienna, and one of the duties of Lord Stewart, the Ambassador to Vienna (Castlereagh’s brother, who was fortunately away from home when the Princess arrived), was to collect information on the scandalous behaviour of the Princess. She and her suite were forced to put up in an inn. BM 12889.
