The contrast, or, Things as they are [graphic].

Creator:

Gillray, James, 1756-1815, printmaker.

Copyright Date:

[12 November 1796]

Physical Description:

1 print : etching & aquatint on wove paper, hand-colored ; sheet 31.4 x 57.8 cm

Notes:

Title etched below image.
Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
CtY-LW

Abstract:

A gallows separates the design into two compartments. A sign in the center reads "Roberspierre, Marat, Santerre." The crossbar reads "Held up to infamy and posterity." Another sign hangs from the left arm and reads "Paine's Rights of Man." The sign on the right side reads "Classical lectures on the Roman History."
The scene on the left half is labelled at the top "Old England" and depicts naval and commercial prosperity under the bright skies. Three columns labelled Virtue, Honor and Loyalty stand over the words British Constitution; at the base of the drawing are the words "is basis, the happiness of the people."
The scene on the right half is labelled at the top "New France", and in contrast, all is death and destruction: cities in ruins, bodies hanging from gallows, a bloody guillotine along with other instruments of torture. Flowing from the guillotine into a shaft underground are discarded fragments: religion, pubk. credit, monarchy, laws, trade, honor, loyality, virtue, art ...

Variant Titles:

Things as they are

Topics:

Democracy.
Gallows.
Guillotines (Punishment)
Liberty cap.
Revolutions--French.
Ruins.
Ships.

Topics:

France--History--Revolution, 1789-1799.

Topics:

Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership.
Harvey, Francis--Ownership.
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
Paine, Thomas,--1737-1809.--Rights of man.
Riviere & Son Binding.

Language:

English

Genre:

Aquatints--England--London--1796.
Etchings--England--London--1796.
Satires (Visual works)--England--1796.

Format:

Image

Content Type:

Prints & Photographs

Rights:

These images are provided for study purposes only. For publication or other use of images from the Library's collection, please contact the Lewis Walpole Library at walpole@yale.edu. Further details on the Library's photoduplication policy are available at http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/html/research/rights_reproductions.html

Call Number:

796.11.12.01++
Auchincloss Gillray v. 4

Orbis Record:

8547523

Yale Collection:

Lewis Walpole Library

Digital Collection:

Lewis Walpole Library

Local Record Number:

lwlpr08765

Citation:

Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 7, no. 8834

OID:

15813375

PID:

digcoll:2782474