"Napoleon plays a double bass, stooping forward, and looking with an agonized expression towards a music-book on a high stand, the pages headed 'Conquest of / Spain & Portugal' and ending in 'Volti Su . . . .' He says: "Plague take it! I never met with so difficult a 'passage' before - But if I can once get over the 'Flats', we shall do pretty well for you see the 'Key' will then change to B sharp." Behind Napoleon and on the right stand the Russian bear on his hind legs, muzzled, and blowing a French horn. He says: "Why that is 'Natural' enough brother Boney though this 'French horn' of yours seems rather out of Order I think." Napoleon, who wears a large bicorne, stands on a 'Map of the Continent' showing 'Spain' and 'Portugal'. Behind him are a drum and a roll of 'Boney's Orations Vol. 10th'."--British Museum online catalogue.
Alternative Title:
Boney playing base on the Continent and Boney playing bass on the Continent
Description:
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue. and Title etched below image.
Publisher:
R. Ackermann, no. 101 Strand
Subject (Name):
Ackermann, Rudolph, 1764-1834, publisher., Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., and Napoleon--I,--Emperor of the French,--1769-1821--Caricatures and cartoons.
"Joseph, neatly dressed as an avocat, takes an enormous step from the rail of a desk (right) on which his right toe is poised to a wall 'Map of Spain & Portugal' on a level with his shoulders, where his left toe touches 'Madrid'. His hands are raised above his head to clutch at a mass of fringed cushions on which is the crown of 'Spain', with a sceptre. On the wall is pinned a notice: 'Notary Public Bayonne'. Four clerks sit facing each other at the desk he has left, which has double slopes, divided by the low rail from which he steps. One asks: "Why Joseph wither art thou going"; he looks down answer: "Whither - but to fill my high destiny? And like my noble Brother Sway tne Sceptre of another." The other clerks say respectively: "But proverbs tell of many Slips, Between the tankard & the lips, And really I am apt to give, The proverb credit as I live" and "He must needs go whom the Devil drives and should it cost his Neck; Ownds! what a prodigious step for a Notary's clerk"."--British Museum online catalogue.
Description:
Title etched below image.
Publisher:
R. Ackermann, no. 101 Strand
Subject (Name):
Ackermann, Rudolph, 1764-1834, publisher., Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Joseph Bonaparte,--King of Spain,--1768-1844--Caricatures and cartoons., Napoleon--I,--Emperor of the French,--1769-1821., and Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles Maurice de,--prince de Bénévent,--1754-1838.