Napoleon’s Decisive Moment
James Gillray, the leading caricaturist of Britain’s late-eighteenth-century golden age of satire, shows Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) striding forth to seize control in a coup d’état on November 10, 1799, by ousting members of the Directory, France’s post-revolution government. In this print, published just days after, Gillray distorts the features of the soldiers, drummer boy, and fleeing figures but does not caricature Napoleon, whose calm and commanding appearance amid the upheaval befits a figure destined to govern as dictator.
James Gillray, the leading caricaturist of Britain’s late-eighteenth-century golden age of satire, shows Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) striding forth to seize control in a coup d’état on November 10, 1799, by ousting members of the Directory, France’s post-revolution government. In this print, published just days after, Gillray distorts the features of the soldiers, drummer boy, and fleeing figures but does not caricature Napoleon, whose calm and commanding appearance amid the upheaval befits a figure destined to govern as dictator.