Imaging The Revolution And The Royalty:A Study Of The British Political Caricatures In The Late Eighteenth And The Early Nineteenth Century

The late 18th century and early 19th century witnessed more and more British caricaturists,publishers and distributors engaged in the production and sales of political caricatures,general standards of those key issues of which,like the craftsmanship,the paper texture,the coloring and so on,had gradually formed during the development of their business and competitions.Patrons of those caricatures were mostly from the upper class due to their high prices,while shop window displays,exhibitions and rental business had brought them to a bigger audience among the middle and lower classes.Under the press of the up springing British radical societies and French revolutionary thoughts,a series of regulation policies introduced by Pitt ministry had a great impact on the caricature industry,which,in objective point of view,promoted the normalization of political caricatures.After the outbreak of the 1789 French Revolution,British caricaturists' works,take James Gillray as a representative,were widely politicized as the revolution became a highlighted topic.They watched closely from bystander's perspective the progress of the revolution on the opposite bank of the English Channel,while also portrayed Britain's internal debates of different political thoughts,the activities of radical groups,and the messes made by party politics.Themed on the French Revolution,no matter implicating domestic or foreign political issues,British caricatures then,reflected the British's own national identity.As the French Revolution gradually affected and undermined the British regime and national security,British caricaturists,driven by whose own patriotic enthusiasm,or employed by the government,had played significant roles in guiding that time's public sentiment.During war against the Napoleonic France,for both business interests and wartime propaganda reasons,the theme of Napoleon were intensively portraited by British caricatures,which were not only popular domestically,some were also exported to other European countries.Images of Napoleon had gone through a transformation from roughness to delicacy,while themes of these caricatures also transformed from political sarcasm to humor,thereafter,the classical Napoleon image had finally been built up.To some extent,the popularity of Napoleon themed caricatures,was because of that the exist of Napoleon provided chances for both sides of British radicals and conservatives to review and improve their rhetoric while debating.The Napoleonic war was a period when the concept of nation-state was widely formed in European countries.Sharing the same political-economical-cultural background,Napoleon themed caricatures and British caricatures on other themes at that time,tested and maintained Briton's imagination of community.While depicting the French Revolution and Napoleonic war,British caricaturists were also constructing the images that symbolized Britain both as a nation and as a people.In the setting of war and under threat of foreign invasion,the concept of nation appeared in British caricatures in form of portrait,which was one of the best ways for Britons to foster their national identity.The icons that British caricaturists used to demonstrate patriotism included military hero Horatio Nelson,typical image of Goddess Britannia from myths,and the image of John Bull from popular culture.These national icons,which were personified by wartime patriotic caricatures,could not only cause extreme hatred due to the hostility of British and French images,but also lose their critical power by being utilized as propaganda tools of party disputes too often.When the menace of war reached the most severe stage,images of king George ? and John Bull converged to become one of the symbols of British nation,thus the negative image of George ? formed in early stage of whose reign had been the redressed.This kind of change started from Margaret Nicholson's regicide in 1786,and the sudden severe illness of George? between 1788 and 1789,which inspired the public's sympathy for the king,and put to rest worries about his autocracy and corruption.Graphic media represented by caricatures was in the right time to reconstruct George ?'s authority as a monarch.It can be said that in domestic strife and under foreign aggression threat caused by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars,British caricaturists,with their acute sensitivity,stuck to the themes of "revolution" and "royalty" that facing the country.Through extensive reconstructions of those important political scenes and characters,caricatures were able to respond to public concerns in a timely manner:on one hand,caricatures set topics for public political participation,on the other hand,they designed brand-new venues for the public to consume image content.As an important demonstration of British printing technology's progress,the rise of political caricatures in the late 18th century and early 19th century not only promoted the development of urban culture,but also played an important role in guiding public opinion and building national identity.