A companion plate to Le Départ (British Museum satire no. 12362), satirizing the haste of the English to visit France in 1814 and their gluttony and bad dressing. The Frenchman who cooks a cat is a subject of English caricatures on the favourite theme of the beggarly Frenchman and well-fed Englishman. In this print. "A lean Englishman strides on to the quayside from an (invisible) gangway leading to the deck of a packet, which is seen below (right), covered with the heads of passengers, looking eagerly upwards. The furled sails and rigging are on the extreme right; a dove holding an olive-branch sits on a spar. A jovial French cook leads the Englishman, who grasps his left wrist; he points to a doorway on the extreme left, below the sign 'Au Bien Venu'. He holds the white cotton night-cap which was the cap of the French cook, but is not foppish as in English caricature, but manly and sturdy. The traveller is a grotesque figure wearing a hat shaped like a flower-pot, [this hat appears in almost all satires on English costumes in Paris, c. 1814; it is worn by a man dressed à l'Anglais in No. 53 of the 'Bon Genre Series' (? 1813): 'Cheveux à Cherubin. Chapeau en pot à fleurs. Redingote en Robe de Chambre'; cf. J.-P. de Bérenger, 'Les Boxeurs', 1814: Quoique leurs chapeaux sont bien laids / Goddam! moi j'aime les Anglais] long tail-coat, wrinkled breeches, and long ill-fitting gaiters on very thin legs. His profile has an absurdly heavy chin (cf. British Museum no. 12364), and he registers eager expectation. On a flap projecting from a window beside the door are peaches, grapes, pears, &c. Within a courtyard a second cook leans from an attic window, knife in hand, to catch a cat by the tail, one of several scampering from the ridge-pole."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from caption below image., Description from impression in the British Museum catalogue., Lettered "Déposé" below image left., Attributed to printmaker Godisart de Cari and publisher Martinet. See British Museum catalogue., This plate was deposited by Martinet on 1 February 1815, although his name is not actually lettered on the plate. It is a pair to 'Le départ' (British Museum number 1868,0822.7249)., and Sheet trimmed within plate mark, with loss of text at lower left and portions of the image at the corners: irregular sheet 18.8 x 23 cm.
Publisher:
Chez Martinet
Subject (Geographic):
France and France.
Subject (Topic):
History, Foreign public opinion, National characteristics, English, National characteristics, French, Cats, Cooks, Doves, Eating & drinking, Ethnic stereotypes, Gluttony, and Mail steamers
