Speaking truth to power

AN article takes time to read, but a picture speaks to us instantly. In the 18th century, William Hogarth campaigned pictorially against idleness, cruelty and drink and Thomas Rowlandson invented comical strips. But it was after 1805, when James Gillray depicted a small, ravening Napoleon carving up the world with William Pitt, that the cartoon— a distillation of news, character and opinion —became a feature of English life. The English tend to laugh at authority rather than rush to the barricades. Hypocrisy, dishonesty, and incompetence are all vulnerable. In unhappy lands where tyrants rule, cartoonists are suppressed, but here, they have thrived.
Napoleon once said that Gillray did him more damage than a dozen generals and ordered anti-English cartoons be drawn in retaliation. However, Gillray struck domestic targets, too, printing entertainingly rude colour pictures of the Prince of Wales—‘a voluptuary under the horrors of digestion’—and of Pitt, vomiting and excreting money in an early version of quantitative easing.
Punch cartoons—infrequently humorous and never scatological—dominated the 19th century. Elaborate allegorical caricatures— many by John Tenniel (illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)—alerted the nation, in anger or in awe, to significant events: a British Lion avenging the Indian Mutiny; society’s foolish ridicule of Darwin (often drawn as simian); Disraeli beguiling Queen Victoria with an Oriental crown. War clouds gathered, but Punch continued unchanged, as with Bernard Partridge’s 1914 German officer standing over a Belgian family he had shot.
Esta historia es de la edición October 05, 2022 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición October 05, 2022 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar

Rules are there to be broken
The second coming of the high-low restaurant, where chefs pair martinis with burgers, is here, finds Will Hosie

City of legend
Kings, cobbles, secrets, superstition and literary fire power—Winchester has had it all in spades for centuries and is as desirable now as it ever was, says Jason Goodwin

How to live the dream
Whatever your passion—be it gardening, fishing, sailing, shooting or equestrian sport— you can live the countryside dream in one of these idyllic Hampshire houses

Into the Goodwood
At the magical Goodwood Art Foundation, a pineapple perches on a chalk bank, 16th-century music bathes an ancient copse and Rachel Whiteread’s cast of the underside of stairs climbs Escher-like into the sky. Charlotte Mullins goes exploring

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
WE are bowling along a wide, straight road out of Muscat, Oman, when the conversation turns to camels.

A capital show
Classic Art London, born from the ashes of London Art Week, puts a spotlight on pre-contemporary art with a whirlwind of exhibitions, talks and pieces that range from Titian to Edgar Degas and Paul Nash

Where angels dare
THE romanticism of an artist modelling the face of an angel on that of his paramour in a mosaic surrounded by lush green foliage has certainly stood the test of time.

The art of exterior decoration
The success of this stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show—which was awarded four stars— reveals Isabella Worsley’s versatility as a designer.

Interiors: The designer's room
The deep-lustre copper brings a period glamour to this kitchen by deVOL

The original Spitfire
Size doesn’t matter when it comes to the fighting spirit of the tiny merlin, a fierce parent and favoured hunting accessory of Mary, Queen of Scots