English: Exit libertè a la Francois!—or—Buonaparte closing the farce of Egalitè, at S^t. Cloud near Paris Nov^r. 10^th. 1799 / J^s. Gillray inv' & f'.

SUMMARY: British satire shows Napoleon with his grenadiers driving the members of the Council of Five Hundred from the Orangery at St. Cloud at bayonet point. A drum is labeled "Vive la Liberte," and papers under foot read "Resignation des Directoires" and "Un liste de Membres du Conseil des Cinque Cents." On November 10, 1799, in a move known as the Coup d'État of Eighteenth Brumaire, Napoleon seized control of the French government and installed himself as First Consul, thereafter governing as a dictator. James Gillray was the dominant caricaturist of his period, producing popular savage cartoons of the English court of George III and later of Napoleon and the French Revolution.

MEDIUM: 1 print : etching, hand-colored ; 25.2 × 36 cm (sheet)

CREATED/PUBLISHED: [London] : Publishd by H. Humphrey 27 St. James's Street, 1799 Novr. 21st.

NOTES:

Title from item.

Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 7, no. 9426

Forms part of: Art Wood Collection of Caricature and Cartoon (Library of Congress).

Forms part of: British Cartoon Prints Collection (Library of Congress).

Unprocessed in WOOD/Gillray.118

Hoff, Syd. Editorial and political cartooning, p. 38; Parton, James, Caricature and other comic art, p. 153, 267–68 — ljr