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‘The enthusiasm is indescribable, when the next drawing appears; it is veritable madness. You have to make your way through the crowd with your fists’.
James Gillray, painted by Charles Turner.
A powerful asset
Caricatures, once a social curiosity, had become powerful political tools. Some of the raunchier London images of French royalty played a major role in the downfall of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. Pitt’s Tory government was also acutely aware of the power of satire, and secretly put Gillray on the payroll from 1797.
One of the primary victims of Gillray’s etching knife was Napoleon, who was in no doubt about the potential potency of vindictive cartoons. On exile in Elba, he admitted Gillray’s caricatures were more damaging than a dozen generals.
‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps’, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1805.
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