"Five members of the Opposition watch with admiring surprise 'Ombres Chinoises': figures whose shadows are thrown on a sheet or screen, the scene enclosed in a circle: three fat Dutchmen seated on the sea advance directly towards the spectators. On the shoulders of each sits a French sansculotte soldier, cadaverous and sinister; the central figure wears a cocked hat from which project cannon or trench-mortars, he holds a tricolour flag. The others wear bonnets-rouges; one (left) blows a trumpet, the other (right) beats a drum. The Dutchmen are impassively smoking pipes, two wear French cockades; from the hips of each project the mouths of cannon. The light background of the circle stands out on a tinted ground; above it is a scroll, apparently issuing from the mouth of the trumpet: 'Terror the Order of the Day'. Only the heads and shoulders of the spectators are visible, all in back view except that of Lansdowne on the extreme right, who says "Astonishing effect". The others (left to right) are Fox, looking through a glass as in British Museum Satires No. 8641, Sheridan, Stanhope, and a bishop identified as Watson of Llandaff. Fox says: "what a fine Effect"."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Signed with the monogram of James Sayers., Seventh of a set of seven prints "Outlines of the Opposition in 1795 ..."; see British Museum catalogue., and Temporary local subject terms: Opposition -- Threat of French invasion of Britain -- Reference to the Dutch fleet -- Military: Dutch soldiers -- Sansculottes -- Bonnet rouge -- Musical instruments -- Slogans: "Terror the order of the day."
Publisher:
Published by H. Humphrey
Subject (Name):
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Stanhope, Charles Stanhope, Earl, 1753-1816, Lansdowne, William Petty, Marquis of, 1737-1805, and Watson, Richard, 1737-1816
Subject (Topic):
Navies, Dutch, Soldiers, French, Cannons, Trumpets, Drums, Flags, Liberty cap, and Pipes (Smoking)
