Treasures From the Archives

Cover art by Karl J. Anderson

"Following France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the fall of Napoleon III, thousands of Parisians revolted against the new royalist-leaning government and declared Paris an independent commune. Weeks of fighting ensued, during which Versailles troops attacked the city while the Communards threw up barricades, shot hostages, and burned government buildings. Soon afterward, Appert, a Parisian portrait photographer, issued “Crimes of the Commune,” a tendentious series of nine photographs of the insurrection that emphasized the criminal brutality of the rebels. Although based on real events, the photographs were utterly fabricated. Appert hired actors to restage each scene in his studio then cut and pasted the figures onto the appropriate backgrounds; atop the actors’ bodies he pasted headshots of the Commune’s key participants. The photographs were later banned by the French government for “disturbing the public peace” by sustaining anti-Communard sentiments—a testament to their effectiveness as political propaganda."

"Gillray created this dynamic satire to celebrate a Spanish-British victory over an overwhelmingly superior enemy at the Battle of Bailén in southern Spain, during the Peninsular War (1807–14). His dynamic conception encapsulates a rare defeat for French occupying forces on July 16–19, 1808. In the left background, members of a Spanish outpost fire at fleeing opponents below while, in the middle distance, a trumpet-blowing monk on horseback rallies followers with the help of a bishop armed with sword and crosier. Greatest attention is given to a series of foreground skirmishes. These center on enraged nuns who engage soldiers in hand-to-hand combat, one grasping the hair of a French general whose tall thin physique identifies him as Pierre Dupont de l’Étang. Near barrels of British gunpowder at left, Spanish men and women dressed in old fashioned attire load a canon while, at right, a sturdy British grenadier bayonets emaciated French soldiers and tramples a tricolour flag lettered "Invincible Legion." The latter gruesome grouping embodies the "lift" of the title in a verbal-visual pun typical of Gillray's unflinching wit."

José Guadalupe Posada Mexican Publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo Mexican 1903

Thomas Rowlandson British After George Murgatroyd Woodward British Publisher Rudolph Ackermann, London British August 15, 1800

Thomas Rowlandson British After George Murgatroyd Woodward British Publisher Rudolph Ackermann, London British August 15, 1800

Little was known about the present sitter George Bailey until a recent article by Geoffrey Munn revealed key details of his life and career. Bailey joined the hospital staff in 1848 as a twenty-seven-year-old unskilled attendant but, by the time Dadd painted him seven years later, he had matured into a skilled caregiver–his face and demeanor communicate calm competence but also hint at weariness. Both artist and sitter benefited from Hood's improvements at Bethlem, although it took five years for the superintendent to obtain permission to move incurable patients with educated backgrounds, such as Dadd, into more humane living quarters. In 1857, Dadd and fifty-nine others were rehoused in a new ward furnished with a library and well-lit common rooms decorated with art and greenery, and enhanced with bird song. Bailey was one of a select group chosen to attend these patients, staff members deemed "respectable...humane and intelligent," who also received significant pay raises. Munn describes Bailey as "a literate, Christian, family man...and, if Bethlem became a much happier place, he undoubtedly helped to make it so." In 1864, he would be promoted, to Principal Attendant and transferred to the new asylum at Broadmoor in Berkshire, remaining there until his retirement in 1884. Five months after Bailey left London, Dadd also moved to Broadmoor and would continue to paint until his death there in 1886. This record of a summer sitting in 1855 offers insights into the lives of two men, caretaker and artist-patient, who interacted across thirty-six years."

Charles Williams British Publisher Thomas Tegg British July 9, 1808

"Woodward and Rowlandson here use a metaphor of consumption to present Napoleon at his most powerful. In July 1808, French armies completed their invasion of Spain. The emperor’s well-known profile and plumed bicorne hat are appended to a fat spider’s body inscribed "Unbounded Ambition." Sitting at the center of a large web, the spider-emperor prepares to eat two Spanish flies representing King Charles IV and his son Ferdinand, both forced to abdicate to clear the throne for Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte. Other entangled flies are labeled "Austria," "Holland," "Hanover," "Prussia" and "Italy," each now a French puppet state. Portugal, in danger of being the next to fall, struggles along the outermost strand. The Russian fly and the Pope fly are lightly caught and express hopes of freeing themselves. Only the Turkish fly, in a jeweled turban, and the British fly, wearing the head of John-Bull, still evade the spider’s grasp."

March 1814?

Thomas Rowlandson British After George Murgatroyd Woodward British Publisher Thomas Tegg British July 12, 1808

Auvrest French n.d.

"Napoleon seated on thorns at center, surrounded by the Continental Powers. Russia is represented by a Bear asleep in a cradle. Spain and Portugal are rising on the sun in the background at left. Sweden raises a sabre behind Napoleon at left. Holland is asleep on a cask at center. Poland is a shadow in the background. Denmark is snuffed out under an extinguisher. The Austrian Emperor is advancing to attack. The Prussian King, with straw in his hair, is confined to a straightjacket at right."

(?) Isaac Cruikshank British, Scottish Publisher William Holland British Subject Napoléon Bonaparte French September 1803

Thomas Rowlandson British After George Murgatroyd Woodward British Publisher Rudolph Ackermann, London British September 15, 1808

Thomas Rowlandson British Publisher Rudolph Ackermann, London British Subject Napoléon Bonaparte French September 20, 1808

Cover art by J.J. Gould and Guernsey Moore