In this battle scene, the cheerful British army trounces the ragged French army now in rapid retreat. The hearty figures of the British soldiers contrast with the thin bodies and grotesquely exaggerated features of their French counterparts. In the left foreground, a British soldier rescues a side of roast beef from a French soldier who has attempted to swap the meat for "soup maigre." At the middle of the melee, an English soldier jabs his bayonet into the bottom of Marshal Jourdan, a French officer. Jourdan jumps high into the air crying; "Oh My Batoon." The English soldier replies; "It's oh your bottom I think." Nearby, a Highlander, wearing a kilt, confiscates a cannon. In the left of the sheet, Wellington sits astride his horse and enjoys the scene from his perch on a hill. A pendant scene to Wellington, Joseph Bonaparte (upper r.), riding a mule, provides a counterpoint to Wellington's heroic figure.
Notes:
Published by Thomas Tegg, 1813-07-07. This print was published in celebration of the British victory at Vittoria. Disregarding heavy losses on both sides, Cruikshank depicts the battle as a day's outing for the British army with an easy victory over the french troops. According to George; 'News of Vittoria was given in an Extraordinary Gazette on 3 July; on 5, 6, and 7 July London was illuminated, and on 7 July there was public thanksgiving at Saint Paul's.'
Caption: Pud. July 7th 1813 by T. Tegg III Cheapside
Dialogue: "Oh! Jean Bull vill you not let me have one little bit of Beef?!? Oh! dear oh! oh! oh! my ___!!" "No, no, I'll be d___d if you take the Roast Beef with you!" "Oh! my Baton!" "It's oh your bottom I think." "Stand out o' the way loons whilst I tak your Last Cannon." "O vat de devil vill Brother Nap say?"
"The Battle of Vittoria"
(1813).
Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Napoleonic Satires from the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:232157/
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