General Frost shaveing Little Boney [graphic] / E.

[London] : Pubd. by Thos. Tegg, No. 111 Cheapside, London, Decr. 1, 1812.

1 print : etching ; plate mark 35 x 25 cm, on sheet 41.8 x 26 cm

wove paper hand-colored.

Bound in the set of five volumes, formerly owned by Henry Arthur Johnstone. Binding: red morocco with his initials stamped in gold on the front cover in a shield with crossed swords and three floral stamps above and one below; also four floral stamps on spine with volume number and spine title in gold: The caricature magazine. Leather endpapers with his ex libris blind stamped on front flyleaf -- a boat with large sail, with a cutout in the shape of the sun in upper left.

"General Frost towers above Napoleon who stands in the snow, his arms folded, while Frost, standing behind him, holds his victim's nose, and flourishes a large razor of 'Russian Steel'. Frost is a grotesque monster, nude to the waist and with the legs of a bear; his great feet are planted upon two groups of little French soldiers, crushing them into the snow. He is emaciated and old, with glaring eyeballs, wide mouth fringed with fang-like teeth, and huge moustache; a blast issues from each nostril; one inscribed 'North' slants down upon Napoleon's head, the other, slanting to the right, is inscribed 'North East--Snow and Sleet'; these are white against a dark sky. He has icicles for eyebrows and on his head are jagged pinnacles inscribed 'Mountain of Ice'. This is irradiated by a disk above his head inscribed 'Polar--Star'. His fingers are talons. From his mouth float the words: "Invade My Country indeed--I'll Shave--Freeze--and Bury you in Snow--You little Monkey." Tears fall from Napoleon's eyes, and he says: "Pray--Brother--General--have Mercy, dont overwhelm me with your hoary element, You have so niped me, that my very Teeth chatter Oh--dear--I am quite Chop fallen." A telescope is thrust under his arm. He wears the wide plumed bicorne of earlier caricatures. In the background on the left is 'Moscow' in flames; on the right the buildings of 'Petersbourg', and, nearer the foreground, 'Riga'. Above the horizon rise icebergs in fantastic shapes."--British Museum online catalogue.

General Frost shaving Little Boney

English

August 03, 2016

Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 9, no. 11917

Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 > Caricatures and cartoons.