"George III is seated (left) on a rectangular altar bending forward, his posteriors bare and irradiated like a sun. He wears a crown; he bends forward as if to caress three fanged serpents emerging from the altar, inscribed, 'The King of Prerogative'. A pair of hands emerges from clouds: one has taken the sceptre from the King's hand, the other is about to remove his crown. Pitt (right) kneels behind the altar, holding out a scroll, the 'Irish Propositions' ... Behind him is a bundle of papers held together by a scroll inscribed 'Provision for the Boghouse 1785'. They are: 'Petition to the [Pa]rliament'; 'Manchester Remonstr[ance]'; 'from Glasgow'; 'Rights of the People'; 'Westminst[er] Petition'; 'Popula[r] Resentment'. Behind the bundle is a pyramid inscribed 'Sacrifices to Liberty The Gracchi', 'De Witt', 'Gaveston', 'Mortimer'; a hand pointing from the apex to Pitt is labelled, 'The next to fall'. In the distance is a ruined temple: 'Temple of Freed[om] a British ruin'. On the side of the altar on which the King is seated is a medallion surmounted with crossed axes inscribed 'Prerogative of the People'. It encloses a severed head in a bowl inscribed 'Charles I'."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Attribution made by George: Maria Closetool allusion to Maria Cosway., Allusion to the Irish proposition of 1785 with an allusion to Maria Cosway's painting: A Persian going to adore the sun., and Watermark in center of sheet.
Publisher:
Published by G. Humphrey No.48 Long Acre
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain
Subject (Name):
George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820, Pitt, William, 1759-1806, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, and Ireland. Parliament. House of Commons
