This satire is one of Gillray's Egyptian Sketches parodying the French army in Egypt. The series was based on a set of letters intercepted en route to Paris that were written by dissatisfied French officers. This series was published in Britain and in Germany. Here, Gillray grotesques two Egyptians whom he characterizes as dazzled by the French tricolor and military pomp. The Egyptians, two black men, are drawn in stark profile views that outline their bulbous noses, fleshy lips, and bald heads. Similarly, the French soldier who stands at the right of the image is drawn so that his hooked nose and sharp chin stand out to best advantage. Yet, whereas the French soldier is dressed in a uniform that highlights his slight and angular figure the Egyptian men are only partly covered by their French costumes. In the center of the image the newly inaugurated "mayor" rides a reluctant mule. He wears breeches and a French military coat that hardly cover his bare legs and protruding round belly. From his pierced ear a large golden chain dangles and sweeps his shoulder, and a hat with tricolored plumes perches ridiculously at the top of his head. Despite the incongruity of his dress, he sits tall on his mule, and with one hand on his hip, and his right holding a staff, he urges his Procureur to lead the mule forward. The Procureur holds the frayed end of the mule's harness in his right hand, in his left he holds a staff. He is completely naked except for a cocked hat, a quill pen tucked behind his ear, and a tricolored ribbon tied across his chest. Like the mayor he faces forward and grins broadly. Such a representation recalls the many British satires of the French in which the sans culottes are represented as uncivilized brutes who are swayed and delighted by the appurtenances of French imperial power. It also calls to mind the tale of the "Emperor's New Clothes," in which a gullible and vain emperor is flattered into believing he wears an new suit of fine clothing, when, in fact, he is naked. The French soldier who stands on the right wears a sinister expression as he prods the donkey forward by stabbing it in the rear flank with his bayonet. Mary George has identified passage from the Introduction to the published letters that seems to relate to this satire: "Bonaparte (in Cairo) selects a few poor wretches from the dregs of the populace, clothes them in tricolored scarfs, dignifies them with the names of Cheiks and Agas...', although such 'Coptic scribes and Jew peddlers have been for ages in Egypt objects of contempt and odium." Thus, in Egypt as in France the ideals of the French Revolution, and the presence of the French Imperial forces appeal to the lowest orders of society.
Notes:
From: Egyptian Sketches
Inscription: Pubd March 12th 1799. by H. Humphrey, 27 St James's Street.
Printed Signature: Etched by Js. Gillray, from the Original Intercepted Drawing.
"'Praetor-Urbanus;' - inauguration of the coptic may of Cairo, preceded by the procureur de la commune"
(1799).
Napoleonic Satires from the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:232464/
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