"Two designs placed side by side, the title so arranged that 'The Contrast' applies to both, the first four and last two words to the two designs respectively. [1] A scene outside Jaffa where the French flag flies from a fort on a rock at whose base are hospital tents (left), in which the sick can be seen. In the foreground Napoleon (a poor portrait) points with an imperious gesture to a bottle of 'Opium' in the hand of a distressed doctor in civilian dress. He says: "Don't talk to me of Humanity & the feelings of a generous heart, I say Poison those Sick dogs they are a burthen to me, & can no longer fight my Battles!!! I say destroy them - As for those Turks, them up in the Garrison, turn all the Guns upon them, Men, Women, & Children & blow them to atoms, they are too bold & resolute for me to suffer them to live, they are in my Way." In the middle distance (left) is a body of Turks, their arms tied behind them, guarded by a French soldier who points at Napoleon. Behind Napoleon two French officers exchange glances, acutely dismayed at the orders." ... [2] Two black soldiers, in neat regimentals, prepare to kill three haggard French officers. One raises an axe to smite a bound prisoner. Two British officers (left) interpose with outstretched arms; one says: "We know they are our Enemies, & yours, & the Enemies of all Mankind, nevertheless Humanity is so strongly planted in the Breast of an Englisman [sic], that he can become an humble beggar, for the lives, even of his enemies, when they are subdued." The other adds: "A mercy unexpected, undeserved surprises more."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Contrast to English humanity
Description:
Title etched below image., Attributed to Charles Williams in the British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Publisher's advertisement in lower right: Folios of caracatures [sic] lent out for the evening., and Mounted on a 19th-century blue album sheet. On the verso are newspaper clippings on a variety of topics: Sir Lionel Darell and the benevolence of the King to grant him land for his greenhouses in Richmond Park; "Observations on the rot of sheep"; Poem entitled "Leamington Spa"; "Balloon Ascension" an extract from a letter from Bristol, dated Sept 26.; an report of the death of Simon Southward, a miller who was a prisoner for 43 years for debt and the delusion of being the Earl of Derby.
Publisher:
Pubd. Jany. 13, 1804, by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
Subject (Topic):
Black people, Flags, French, Forts & fortifications, Tents, Military medicine, Sick persons, Soldiers, Physicians, Opium, Military officers, Prisoners of war, Turkish, British, Physical restraints, and Axes
Four caricatures of men eating soup each type identified below the image: a rich man with rhinophyma eats "Turtle Soup"; a tall, thin soldier with a queue hairstyle eats "Soup Maigre"; a dustman eats "Pea Soup"; and a thin man in an upholstered armchair and wearing a cap and slippers eats "Mutton Broth."
Description:
Title from captions below image., Attribution to Henry Heath and questionable year of publication from description in British Museum catalogue of the first print in the series. See no. 15181 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 10., Publisher information from imprint "Pubd. by William Cole, 10, Newgate Street" on second print in the series. See Lewis Walpole Library call no.: 826.00.00.86+., Description based on an imperfect impression; sheet trimmed within plate mark with probable loss of imprint statement from bottom edge., and Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum.
Publisher:
William Cole
Subject (Topic):
Eating & drinking, Soups, Soldiers, Sick persons, and Dustmen