Royal recreation [graphic].

Edition:

[State without 's' in heads].

Published/Created:

London
Pub. January 7, 1795, by S.W. Fores, N. 3 Piccadilly
[7 January 1795]

Physical Description:

1 print : etching on laid paper ; plate mark 25.6 x 35.6 cm, on sheet 27 x 38 cm

Notes:

Title etched below image.
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue.
Earlier state before addition of letter 's' in 'heads' in Suvorov's speech balloon.
Earlier state. Cf. No. 8607 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 7.
Temporary local subject terms: Reference to the Battle of Warsaw, November 1794.
Walter Schatzki; February 1961; Acquisitions no.: 961-2-1-128.

Abstract:

"Catherine II, seated on the throne, eagerly receives the heads of Poles offered to her by a ferocious-looking officer. Three attendants advance behind him with baskets filled with heads of young women and children; the foremost kneels, holding out his basket, the next carries a basket on his shoulders; above it flies a demon. On the extreme right, on a pedestal, is the bust of Fox by Nollekens (see BMSat 7902), looking wryly over his right shoulder at the Empress. The officer, Suvóroff, holds out by the hair to the Empress three heads, one of which she touches with a finger. His sleeves are rolled up; in his left hand is a bunch of heads, under his left arm a long bloody sword and a document: 'Articles of Capitulation Warsaw'. On his short top-boots are enormous spurs. He says: "Thus my Royal Mistress have I fulfilled in the fullest extent your Tender Affectionate & Maternal Commission to those Deluded People of Poland, & have brought you the Pickings of Ten Thousand Heads tenderly detached from their deluded bodies the Day after Capitulation." The Empress answers: "My Dear General you have well Executed your Commission; but could not you prevail on any of the Polish Women to Poison their Husbands?" (An allusion to the murder of Peter III, cf. BMSat 8072.) To the demon she says: "Go my little Ariel & prepare our Altars for these pretty Sacrifices, we must have te Deum on the Occasion." The demon, a nude bat-winged creature, says: "Bravo this outdoes the Poison Scene." The Empress wears ermine-trimmed robes and holds a sceptre, but does not (as usual) wear a crown. Beside her (left) lies a bear, only the head and forepaws being visible."--British Museum online catalogue.

Associated Names:

Cruikshank, Isaac, 1756?-1811? [Printmaker]
Fores, S. W. [Publisher]

Topics:

Catherine II, Empress of Russia, 1729-1796
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806
Massacres
Suvorov, Aleksandr Vasilʹevich, kni︠a︡zʹ Italiĭskiĭ, 1730-1800

Topics:

Praga (Warsaw, Poland)
Russia -- History -- Catherine II, 1762-1796

Language:

English

Genre:

Etchings -- England -- London -- 1795
Satires (Visual works) -- England -- 1795

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:

795.01.07.01.1+

Orbis Record:

8034154

Yale Collection:

Lewis Walpole Library

Digital Collection:

Lewis Walpole Library

Local Record Number:

lwlpr08477

Volume/Enumeration:

Digital version

OID:

10939234

PID:

digcoll:950531