European Review of History: Revue européenne
d'histoire
ISSN: 1350-7486 (Print) 1469-8293 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cerh20
Cutting the cake: the Congress of Vienna in British,
French and German political caricature
Jos Gabriëls
To cite this article: Jos Gabriëls (2016): Cutting the cake: the Congress of Vienna in British,
French and German political caricature, European Review of History: Revue européenne
d'histoire, DOI: 10.1080/13507486.2016.1177714
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2016.1177714
© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa
UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis
Group
Published online: 27 May 2016.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 509
View related articles
View Crossmark data
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cerh20
Download by: [192.87.139.143]
Date: 28 June 2016, At: 00:46
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire, 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2016.1177714
OPEN ACCESS
Cutting the cake: the Congress of Vienna in British, French
and German political caricature
Jos Gabriëls
Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, The Hague, The Netherlands
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
ABSTRACT
Although the Congress of Vienna was not a main topic for political
caricature, it was anything but ignored. During the first five months
of 1815, while monarchs and diplomats were deliberating on Europe’s
future, caricaturists in Great Britain, France and the German-speaking
states depicted the Congress as a major or minor subject in 20 satirical
prints. Together these caricatures provide a multi-perspectival view
of the way contemporaries assessed the diplomatic deliberations
taking place in Vienna. To obtain an insight into this important part
of contemporary public opinion on the Congress, the corpus of
graphic satire was submitted to close scrutiny in two ways. Firstly, a
context analysis ascertained the artists who produced them; how the
prints were published and brought to public attention; and for what
audiences they were intended. Secondly, a content analysis explored
the political messages that the caricatures on the Vienna Congress
tried to convey and the persuasive techniques that were applied to
visualise these points of view. Notwithstanding different national
origins and opposite political views, the message is a negative one:
the satires denounce the territorial greed of the Great Powers and
their disregard for the demands and aspirations of the peoples they
seek to incorporate.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 20 May 2015
Accepted 9 April 2016
KEYWORDS
Caricatures; public opinion;
diplomacy; Congress of
Vienna; Napoleon
Distinguished gentlemen around a table
After the Allied armies, in a protracted and exhausting struggle, had finally succeeded in
bringing an end to Napoleon’s Continental hegemony, monarchs and statesmen from some
200 countries, large and small, convened in Vienna to discuss the political future of Europe.
However, during the seven months the Congress assembled – from November 1814 to June
1815 – it never met in a plenary session of all delegates present. In fact, all the important
decisions were made in informal meetings of the plenipotentiaries of Russia, Austria, Prussia
and Great Britain. Only France, yesterday’s enemy, eventually succeeded in being admitted
to these exclusive deliberations, shrewdly exploiting the rising animosity among the four
Allied powers. The controversy over the fate of Poland and Saxony even brought the Great
Powers momentarily to the brink of war. The sudden threat posed by Napoleon’s return
from Elba to France speeded up the negotiations in Vienna and on 9 June 1815 the Final
Act was signed; nine days later the ‘usurper’ was defeated at Waterloo.
CONTACT Jos Gabriëls [email protected]
© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
2 J. Gabriëls
From the beginning of the twentieth century onward, historians have valued the lasting achievement of the Vienna settlement. The horrors of two world wars made them
commend all the more the negotiators’ ability to establish relative peace in Europe for
almost a century. This appreciation stands in marked contrast to the criticism on the
Congress’ proceedings vented by contemporary historians and commentators. In their
writings, Adam Zamoyski stated, the diplomatic gathering in the Austrian capital ‘became
a byword for injustice, incompetence and above all disreputable practice and intrigue’.1
Not only printed sources, however, give us insight into contemporary public opinion on
the Congress. In another way, political caricature does the same. Hence, to enlarge our
understanding, it seems relevant to investigate whether the numerous graphic satires
representing the deliberations in Vienna convey the same negative message or offer
another assessment.
A first impression of the outcome of such an investigation may be derived from the
answer to a more primordial question: in what way, according to what conventions, are
diplomatic conferences in general depicted in caricature? The answer is not easily given,
since internationally such satirical images do not seem to be very numerous; at least not
before the middle of the nineteenth century. Consequently, the great attention caricaturists
gave to the Vienna Congress appears to be quite exceptional. This becomes all the more
clear when we look – as the most obvious referent for comparison – to the satirical depiction of the four assemblies that gathered after 1815 under the so-called ‘Congress System’
inaugurated at Vienna. A quick glance shows that the congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818),
Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821) and Verona (1822) each feature in one print at most.2 It
is only in the latter half of the century that the number of caricatures on diplomatic conferences would increase, when they became the subject of cartoons included in satirical
magazines and, increasingly also, in major political newspapers.3 Granted that there is
not really a tradition of portraying diplomatic assemblies in caricature, some persistent
features may be identified.
First of all – and this will hardly come as a surprise – the centrepiece in these images
is almost always a table, around which some distinguished-looking gentlemen, crowned
rulers or their plenipotentiaries, are engaged in negotiating or are even in open strife.
On this table is the object of their attention, usually a map, upon which they lay their
grasping hands or from which they are brutally carving out pieces with knives or swords.
Quite often this activity is represented symbolically as the cutting of a cake. This was
already the case in the pre-caricatural, emblematic phase of graphic satire, in the allegories devoted to diplomatic assemblies, of which the engraving on the First Partition
of Poland by the French artist Noël Le Mire from 1773 is the most famous example.4
And this motif extends well into the late nineteenth century, via James Gillray’s famous
print The Plumb-pudding in Danger from 1805, right through to the cartoons on the
partition of Africa in 1885 or China in 1898.5 A final recurring element are the losers in
the negotiations: the duped tend to lie under the table where they are rudely trampled
upon, as the tiny German princes in John Lewis Marks’ caricature from 1823 on the
Congress of Verona, or the bound Polish beauty in Honoré Daumier’s animal satire from
1832 on the Conference of London.6 It should therefore be clear that in satirical imagery
on diplomatic assemblies the gentlemen around the conference tables seldom behave
like gentlemen. And, as we shall see, in the caricatures on the Congress of Vienna it is
not any different.
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 3
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
Twenty topical prints
The Vienna Congress assembled in the heyday of political caricature. All over Europe, the
conclusive confrontation of the years 1813–15 between Napoleon and the Allies became
a major subject of graphic satire, all the more so as the grip of French censorship – in
France itself, but also in the countries annexed, occupied or otherwise controlled – rapidly
loosened and eventually disappeared.7 Of course, such restrictions were never applied in
Great Britain, which made the long-lasting conflict with Napoleon, from the very moment
he came to power, a favourite subject for caricaturists. These satires were not only large in
number, but also of high quality. Hence, it is not without reason that in this country the
period from 1780 to 1830 is called the ‘Golden Age of Caricature’.
Through the years, these developments in the field of printed satire have received much
attention in historiography, first and foremost in Britain. Since A.M. Broadley’s classic
study, Napoleon in Caricature from 1911, there frequently have been publications on the
caricatures relating to the French Emperor, which abound in the collections of the British
Museum in London, the Bodleian Library at Oxford and the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale
University. In recent decades, the anti-Napoleon satires have mostly been explored in richly
illustrated exhibition catalogues headed by some introductory essays.8 Other aspects of the
‘Golden Age of Caricature’ were expounded in various scholarly publications, ranging from
the ground-breaking inventory work by Dorothy George on British political caricature in
general, to studies on specific themes or individual artists.9
In Germany, the outburst of anti-Napoleon caricatures during the Wars of Liberation
(‘Befreiungskriege’) of 1813–15 has only recently been systematically studied. Here, the pioneering work was done by Sabine and Ernst Scheffler, who in their So zerstieben getraeumte
Weltreiche: Napoleon I. in der deutschen Karikatur from 1995 compiled a comprehensive
survey of more than 400 German caricatures relating to the end of Napoleon’s reign.10 In
France, the same was done by Catherine Clerc in La caricature contre Napoléon from 1985
for 178 French anti-Napoleon satires, almost all from the years 1813–15, though the content
analysis of the individual caricatures unfortunately lacks the level of detail of its German
counterpart.11
As caricature research focused on Napoleon’s downfall, some subjects have received
recurring attention, such as the Allied advance after the Battle of Leipzig, the Emperor’s
abdication, Elba, Waterloo and Saint Helena. Astonishingly, these topics do not include the
Congress of Vienna, for all that it was one of the major international events in these eventful
years.12 This is the more surprising because, having already ascertained that internationally
the number of pictorial satires on diplomatic conferences in general before the middle of
the nineteenth century is rather modest, the largest part of them nonetheless feature the
deliberations in the Austrian capital. And – as we will see – this relative abundance has
everything to do with the partial overlap between the Congress caricatures and the (anti-)
Napoleon satires.
The Vienna assembly is a fascinating political event, which, particularly in its satirical
representation, is worth more focused scholarly attention. Yet, this article not only finds
its originality in the subject matter, but also in the way it engages it. For a political historian with a prosopographical background, it is self-evident that valid conclusions can only
be drawn when all satirical prints featuring the Congress are surveyed. In this methodological aspiration the article pretends to be innovative as too often research on topical
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
4 J. Gabriëls
caricatures concentrates on case studies and thereby fails to escape the odium of arbitrariness. Furthermore, apart from this systematic rigour, the article might also claim originality
for its international comparative scope, since students of graphic satire tend to confine their
research to only one country.
Preliminary to establishing an all-inclusive corpus of political caricature on the deliberations in Vienna, I formulated a general definition that covers both content and style. It
reads as follows: a political caricature is a pictorial representation commenting on a political event or situation in a satirical, though not necessarily humorous, way. Its distinctive
features are simplification and incongruity, distortion and exaggeration, most specifically
of the persons portrayed, as well as the use of various symbols and metaphors to visualise
complex political realities for a specific audience.13
On the basis of this general definition, I specified six criteria to select the satirical
imagery on the Congress of Vienna. First of all, (1) the caricatures, self-evidently, have to
depict this diplomatic assembly as a major or minor subject, and (2) have to represent in
this respect a political point of view. This led me to discard the many satires in which the
Great Powers, without any direct relation to the Viennese context, side with the French
king Louis XVIII to confront Napoleon after his return from Elba, or, in a more general
way, mount a collective defence against the recidivist disturber of peace and security in
Europe.14 Selection on this criterion made me reject several prints traditionally associated
with the negotiations in Vienna, but actually depicting other events.15 In this context (3), the
chronological demarcation matters, as all the selected caricatures had to be contemporary:
they had to be published between November 1814 and June 1815, being the months the
Vienna Congress assembled.16 On the other hand (4), the national origins of the graphic
satires were of no relevance.17 Furthermore (5), it is obvious that all selected images had
to be genuine caricatures, that is to say, that they have to portray persons who have been
caricatured.18 Consequently, allegories were left out. Finally, (6) the caricatures necessarily
had to be prints (i.e. etchings, engravings, aqua- and mezzotints), for only these could be
widely spread and purchased; accordingly, unique creations, such as drawings or watercolours, were ruled out.19
Extensive surveys in printed catalogues and online image repositories of public collections in various countries were conducted with multiple search terms.20 Thus, a corpus
was established of exactly 20 political caricatures representing the Congress of Vienna
which comply with the aforementioned selection criteria. Eventually, all these graphic satires
proved to be held in four major collections: the Department of Prints and Drawings in the
British Museum in London, the Curzon Collection in the Bodleian Library at Oxford and the
De Vinck and Hennin Collections in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.21 The 20
prints thus traced are listed in the Appendix, which provides not only factual information,
but also their URL to access them directly in the four image databases just mentioned. The
numbers in square brackets, added to the titles of the caricatures mentioned in the text,
refer to their numbers in the Appendix.
Although the defined corpus of graphic satire claims to be comprehensive, it is impossible
to say with certainty whether this goal was actually achieved. For one can never know what
remains hidden in public archives and libraries or in private collections. In the course of
my research, for instance, two French prints featuring the Congress came to light which
hitherto were little or not known, namely Le Cabinet noir ou: Les Pantins du 19eme Siècle
[13] and La Balance de l’Europe rétablie au Congrès de Vienne en 1815 [17].22
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 5
The 20 political caricatures retrieved all date from the first five months of 1815. With
regard to their origin, they are almost evenly distributed between Britain and France, with,
respectively, 10 and nine satires. The German-speaking states are represented with only one
print, and the reason for this imbalance has everything to do with the rigour of the applied
selection criteria, more specifically the exclusion of allegories. For, in early nineteenthcentury Germany, the emblematic tradition in pictorial satire was still vigorous.23 The most
striking example is Endliches Schiksaal, Friedrich Rosmäsler’s esoteric allegory on the Vienna
Congress, in which not a single person is included.24 Furthermore, genuine satirical portrait
caricature, as in Britain, was rare here; Frazer Clark tells us that, commonly, people were
depicted in a ‘straight-faced, quasi-allegorical [way] most familiar to the German eye’.25
Caricatures on the Congress of Vienna from other countries where graphic satire was thriving at the time – Russia or the Netherlands for example – were pursued but not retrieved.
This body of satirical imagery I submitted to a twofold analysis, scrutinising both context
and content of the images. Firstly, I ascertained who made the caricatures and with what
intention. How were the prints published and brought to public attention? And for what
audiences were they intended? Secondly, I explored the political messages the caricatures
on the Congress of Vienna aim to convey. More specifically, I tried to assess what persuasive
techniques – simplification, exaggeration, stereotyping, symbolism, allusion – were applied
to visualise these points of view. In doing so, four themes emerged, which I will elucidate
successively, namely: (1) the relation between the Vienna caricatures and the aforementioned
(anti-)Napoleon satires; (2) the inclusion or omission of the principal negotiators and how
they are caricatured; (3) the way in which the negotiations themselves are depicted and how
their portrayal relates to the real issues discussed at the Congress; (4) and, in regard to the
latter, the prevailing criticism was aired in the prints.
Finally, with regards to the content analysis, it needs to be emphasised, once again, that
my approach is that of a political historian. In this respect, I admit to having more affinity
with the work of fellow historians like Tamara Hunt, Tim Clayton and John Moores than
with recent publications on graphic satire by scholars in the field of literary and cultural
studies. That is why – without any intent to caricature diverging trends in caricature research
– I have preferred to anchor my arguments in the solid ground of factual evidence and tried
to refrain from interpretations and suppositions which are hard to verify.26 This article,
therefore, deliberately does not engage the aesthetics of the political prints under survey.
Publishers, artists and audiences
Before proceeding with the contextual survey, a general remark has to be made. One must
bear in mind that the 20 single-sheet prints selected for a topical reason in no way whatsoever stand on their own. As mentioned before, the Congress of Vienna was just one subject
of satirical imagery among so many others. Accordingly, these specific caricatures cannot
be studied without taking into account the process of change that pictorial satire as a whole
went through at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century.
In each of the three countries from which the images originate, this process was defined
by national tradition, artistic and technical progress, the opportunities for publishing and
disseminating prints, and the domestic political situation at the time.
In Britain’s ‘Golden Age of Caricature’ artists such as James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson
and George Cruikshank brought pictorial satire to unprecedented heights. In this country,
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
6 J. Gabriëls
caricaturists enjoyed great freedom not only to lampoon the royal court, the ministers and
the politicians, but during the years of continuous warfare against France, deriding and ridiculing the implacable enemy Napoleon was also a persistent theme.27 Across the Channel,
the situation was just the opposite. Under the strict censorship during the Consulate and
Empire, only political prints mocking the British enemy were tolerated. In the spring of
1814, after the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty to the throne, initial freedom led to an
outpouring of graphic satire in which the fallen Emperor especially was vilified. Inversely,
Napoleon’s brief return to power during the Hundred Days provoked an outburst of vehemently anti-royalist caricatures.28 In the German-speaking states, the news of Napoleon’s
disastrous Russian campaign and, consequently, his defeat in the Battle of Leipzig in October
1813 unleashed a similar deluge of visual satire against the French Emperor. This brief
interlude, when censorship was virtually non-existent, lasted until after the Congress of
Vienna, when new repressive regimes were established. They, in turn, rapidly tightened
their grip on public opinion.29
In 1815, in all three countries, political caricatures were published and sold by professional print sellers. This type of entrepreneur came in various sorts, from the publishers
of the artistically refined and therefore expensive prints, to those who sold the cruder and
lower-priced plates, each with their own clientele. Since it has been extensively studied, we
are especially well informed on the London print trade. The leading upmarket publishers
in the British capital were Samuel William Fores (1761–1838) and Hannah Humphrey
(c.1745–1818), who had their shops in the fashionable West End.30 So it is not surprising
that the three caricatures on the Vienna Congress [2, 7, 8], with the most intricate design
and in the most sophisticated style were published here.31 The situation was much the
same in Paris, where Aaron Martinet (1762–1841) was the undisputed market leader.32
He published at least two of the nine French caricatures [17, 18]. In the German states,
the most important print seller in those days was Friedrich Campe (1777–1846) in the
Bavarian city of Nuremberg.33 He published the only German satire in the corpus [20]. In
the caricature trade in all three countries, commercial interests prevailed. For the publishers
political convictions, if any, were of minor importance. Since they printed the satires they
thought would sell, their content was, therefore, consistent with prevailing public opinion.34
Admittedly, this does not imply that their caricatures were only intended to confirm and
never to convince.35
For all 10 British prints in the corpus the name of the artist is known. As many as seven of
them [2, 4, 6–10] were produced by George Cruikshank (1792–1878), who by 1815, though
only 23 years old, was the leading political caricaturist in Britain.36 The other graphic satires
were made by artists of lesser renown, namely the elder Charles Williams (fl. 1797–1830)
[1, 3] and the 19-year-old John Lewis Marks (c.1796–1855) [5].37 In the case of the nine
French prints, for five of them the artist’s name could be identified: they are Forceval [11,
12], G. Bein [13], presumably a certain Saint-Phal [14] and Jean-Baptiste Gauthier l’aîné
(fl. 1780-1820) [16].38 More than their names, however, is not revealed. The other French
satires are anonymous or unidentified [15, 17, 18, 19].39 The only German caricature – or
semi-caricature really40 – was made by the Bavarian Johann Michael Voltz (1784–1858),
one of the most famous and decidedly one of the most prolific artists of his day [20].41
No more than their publishers did the caricaturists position themselves as independent and critical opinion leaders, because basically, more than artists, they were artisans
who made what they were paid for. As freelancers contracted by the print sellers, they
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 7
produced satires on subjects that in many cases were suggested by their employers.42 Voltz,
for instance, a man without much humour and with limited imagination, received most
of the ideas and – often very detailed – designs for his images from his publishers, in the
first place from Campe. This is why Elisabeth Reynst has compared Voltz to a ‘well-oiled
machine with a factory-like production: a huge quantity of guaranteed quality, but without
any distinctive rough ends’.43 Apart from the publishers, subjects for graphic satires also
came from various others. Especially in Britain, reputable caricaturists were, in the words
of Robert Patten, ‘deluged with ideas from all quarters’.44 On five of the 10 British prints in
the corpus [2, 5, 6, 7, 10], it is indicated by means of abbreviations as ‘invt’ (invenit), ‘del.’
(delineavit), ‘des.’(designavit) or ‘fect’ (fecit) that the artist made the satire upon a design or
an idea furnished by another.45 Thus, the two Cruikshank caricatures published by Hannah
Humphrey [2, 7] have the inscription ‘G.H. invt’, which means that her nephew, George
Humphrey, suggested the subject.46
For all these reasons, the political viewpoint the caricaturists expressed in their work
might vary over time. This is apparent in the case of Voltz47 and some of the selected French
caricaturists who changed their attitude towards the defeated Napoleon overnight and with
the greatest of ease.48 Although some of them had their work inserted as large hand-coloured
fold-outs in oppositional periodicals, this may, therefore, not be taken as an indication for
their political conviction. Two of the 10 British satires on the Vienna Congress – one by
Williams and one by Cruikshank [1, 10] – thus appeared in the Whiggish, anti-governmental
monthly The Scourge. Of the nine French caricatures an anonymous one [19] was included
in the liberal, anti-royalist magazine Le Nain jaune.49
In the three countries under study, political caricatures reached, all in all, rather narrow
audiences. Assuredly, they were sold in editions of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of
copies50, not only in the print shops in the capitals, but also in provincial towns; and they
were even shipped in substantial quantities to dealers abroad.51 Moreover, the latest pictorial
satires were put on display in the shop windows of the print sellers, where crowds from all
ranks of society would gather to enjoy and discuss them.52 Nevertheless, the vast majority
of the purchasers belonged to the metropolitan elites. For only they could afford the caricatures and were sufficiently educated to fully comprehend and appreciate their satirical
content with its irony, parody and cultural and historical allusions.53
The Congress and the Hundred Days
After this contextual survey, the content of the 20 selected prints has to be analysed. As indicated above: while caricatures on nineteenth-century conferences are relatively rare, there
are many featuring the diplomatic gathering in Vienna. Beside the temporary loosening or
abolition of censorship in various Continental states in the years 1813–15, another reason
for this profusion is the combination of the Congress topic with that of Napoleon’s return
from Elba in March 1815.54 This event made a profound impression on contemporaries,
and this effect is reflected in graphic satire.
In only eight of the 20 prints does Napoleon fail to make an appearance; in these satires,
the Congress is the main subject. Firstly, there are of course the prints produced before
the Hundred Days. Williams’ Amusement at Vienna [1] and Cruikshank’s Twelfth Night
[2] both date from February 1815. Forceval’s print Le Congrès counts double, because it
comes in two successive versions [11, 12], with only a minor variation in one of the persons
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
8 J. Gabriëls
portrayed.55 They are the only French satires on the Vienna assembly published during the
Bourbon regime. Secondly, no more than two prints, La Balance de l’Europe rétablie [17]
and La Balance politique [19], both from France, have the diplomatic assembly in Vienna
as an exclusive topic. Each of them displays in a very literal way how the various national
interests had to be balanced. Finally, two caricatures are only indirectly related to the Vienna
proceedings: in The Ambassadors [sic] Return [3] Williams anticipates what Castlereagh’s
imminent return from Congress would look like. In the anonymous plate Mr Tout-à-Tous
ou le Modèle de reconnaissance [18], Talleyrand is drafting the infamous declaration of 13
March 1815, by which he had his former master declared an outlaw by the Congress.56 He
is prompted by the Devil, unquestionably a parody of biblical iconography.57
Napoleon’s return from Elba thus dominates the caricatures on the Congress. In four
British satires, three by Cruikshank [4, 6, 10] and one by Marks [5], the deliberations in
Vienna are even reduced to no more than an amusing vignette. The assembly is an anecdotal
detail in the distant scenery, visualised as a few grossly drawn gentlemen, sitting around a
table or standing around a globe, in a tent or pavilion with an open front. Here ‘Vienna’ is
just a side-topic, a mere sub-subject. In the other prints Napoleon – literally – interrupts
the negotiations of the four Great Powers. But there is a striking difference between the
representation of this event in British and in French graphic satire.
In the three British caricatures featuring this theme, Napoleon is brutally disturbing the
discussions in Vienna [7, 8, 9]. These prints, all made by Cruikshank, should be placed in the
more than two-decade-long tradition of satirical attacks on the French opponent, and more
in particular on ‘Buonaparte’, the warmongering ruler. This, to a large extent, explains why
it is essentially an outdated, anachronistic image of the escapee from Elba that is presented
here. Both in content and in style it is the perpetuation of a time-honoured portrayal. For
Cruikshank copied almost unaltered the popular image Gillray had conceived in 1803 of
Napoleon as ‘Little Boney’, the enemy the British loved to hate.58 Therefore, with his large
plumed bicorn, his tricolore-sash and spurred jackboots, he has the appearance, not of the
mighty Emperor, but of the former bellicose revolutionary general.59 Obviously, this is not
without reason: Cruikshank depicts Napoleon as an agent of force and violence, dashing
in with his huge sabre drawn and – as in The Congress dis[s]olved [8] – metaphorically
trampling on the Viennese documents concerning peace and security in Europe.60 This
contrast between the beneficial proceedings of the Congress and the sudden threat of war
posed by Napoleon is further accentuated in the verses under Cruikshank’s print Boneys
[sic] Return from Elba [7]:
Assembled Congress fix’d the flattering Plan
For Europes [sic] safety & the Peace of man
When like a Tiger, stealing from his den,
And gorg’d with blood, yet seeking blood again;
From Elbas [sic] Isle the Corsican came forth,
Making his sword the measure of his worth61
The French satirical counterparts, obviously, offer no such demonising imagery. The
three relevant prints [14, 15, 16], dating from March and April 1815, depict Napoleon in a
realistic way. He has the right physique and wears the correct uniform, complete with the
signature hat and greatcoat. His body is in no way distorted, as hostile French caricaturists
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 9
were apt to do before he reseized the throne.62 One might even say that he is idealised, as
even his embonpoint is missing. In these three caricatures the noble Emperor is symbolically claiming his rightful seat at the conference table, replacing Louis XVIII, whom, in La
Bouillotte [16], he is tapping politely on his shoulder to make way. The two other prints show
the Bourbon King, in Le Paté indigeste [15], and his representative Talleyrand, in Le Gâteau
des Rois [14], lying under the table, as the ultimate metaphor for the fallen monarchy, thus
exposing their illegal presence in Vienna.
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
The negotiators portrayed
Although Napoleon’s intrusion is an important topic, there are also other themes to be
explored in the graphic satire on the Congress of Vienna. In what way, for instance, were
the negotiators depicted? Who were included in the prints, and who were not? And for
what reason?
In their portrayal of the principal participants, the caricatures featuring the Congress
are, once again, part of a longer trend. In almost all of the satires that were published from
Leipzig to Waterloo and beyond, the four Great Powers that fought Napoleon are personified,
not in a general, allegorical way but as real individuals.63 Assuredly, in some prints John
Bull appears as symbol of Great Britain [1, 2, 3, 7, 19], and in Williams’ plate Amusement
at Vienna [1] Russia, Austria and Prussia even figure, in the most bizarre incongruousness,
as emblematic animals: respectively a bear, a double-headed and a single-headed eagle.64
But all these are no more than atavistic exceptions to the rule.
In the selected caricatures, each Great Power at the Vienna Congress is represented by
its crowned head of state or its leading diplomat. To enhance recognition they have all been
highly iconographically stereotyped. First of all, there is the invariable use of national colours, or better still, the colours of the army uniforms worn by the monarchs and military
commanders.65 For Russia it is dark green, for Austria white with red facings, and for Prussia
of course Prussian blue. For Great Britain there was the famous ‘red coat’. Apart from the
colour of their costume, the representatives are likewise to be identified by distinctive physical characteristics, because in most cases, notwithstanding distortions and exaggerations,
the artists remained remarkably close to the original.
The three eastern Great Powers are in almost all cases represented by their sovereigns.
The Russian Tsar Alexander I is typified by his extended blond side-whiskers and an extralarge cocked hat. The Austrian Emperor Francis I may be recognised by his narrow oblong
face, under an old-fashioned white-haired wig. The Prussian King William Frederick III
is often characterised by his moustache and a shy, melancholic glance. Conversely, the
two western Great Powers are usually personified by their foremost diplomats. For Great
Britain, Foreign Secretary Castlereagh led the national delegation until February 1815. He
is commonly depicted as the slender and stiff, impeccable gentleman. His successor, until
the end of March, was Wellington. Apart from the scarlet uniform, his most characteristic
feature is his prominent aquiline nose; ‘Old Nosey’ was his nickname in the army. Finally,
Talleyrand, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, is easily recognised by his long white
curly hair and, of course, his clubfoot, which British and Bonapartist caricaturists alike
were keen to emphasise.66
The circumstance that the crowned rulers of Russia, Austria and Prussia attended the
Congress in person while the British monarch was absent posed a problem to the graphic
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
10 J. Gabriëls
satirists, which they solved in various ways. Voltz, the author of Der Congress [20], the
only German print, for example, chose the easy way and simply left Britain out altogether, portraying only the three Continental autocrats deliberating.67 Two – apparently
uninformed – French artists allocated the British seat at the conference table nevertheless
to George, the Prince Regent [14, 15].
Although he did not attend the deliberations either, the French King Louis XVIII, obese
and with gout-ridden legs, is to be found in no less than nine of the 20 prints in the corpus.68 But only in Twelfth Night [2], Le Paté indigeste [15] and La Bouillotte [16] he actually
personifies France at the Congress; the old, royalist France that is, and in the two last mentioned caricatures he is ousted as such from his seat at the conference table by Napoleon,
self-evidently the epitome of the new, imperial France. In the other prints, the Bourbon
King is shown in Vienna accompanied by his plenipotentiary Talleyrand [7, 14, 19] or in
relation to the regime change in Paris after Napoleon’s return from Elba [5, 10, 13].69
In the caricatures featuring the Congress, more persons are depicted, who in reality were
not there. Two highly disputed issues in Vienna concerned the future of the kingdom of
Saxony and that of the Kingdom of Naples. In two prints the Saxon King, Frederick Augustus
I, appears, although – as Napoleon’s long-time ally – he was at first held in captivity as a
prisoner of war and after his release banned from attending the Congress.70 The monarch
symbolises the precarious fate of his country: Prussia eagerly wanted to annex Saxony,
and Austria, in turn, persistently tried to prevent this. Bein depicted this controversy in Le
Cabinet noir [13], where Frederick Augustus figures as ‘Father Cassander’, the archetype
of the duped old man in the commedia dell’arte.71 He has fallen victim to the Prussian
King in the role of the cunning and mean-spirited ‘Crispin’, whose right hand is already in
‘Cassander’s’ pocket, a felony for which he is reprimanded by the Austrian Emperor, represented here as the clumsy and foolish ‘Jocrisse’. In both versions of Forceval’s caricature Le
Congrès [11, 12], the Saxon King is shown with his hands desperately clinging to his crown
and not participating in the dancing, anxious of losing it after all: ‘Il danse terre-à-terre’,
reads the text above his head.72
The King of Naples, Joachim Murat, was also absent from Vienna, but figures nevertheless
symbolically in three French satires. Although Napoleon’s brother-in-law, he was initially
allowed to keep his throne, after his timely defection to the Allies.73 Thus he is one of the
dancing sovereigns – ‘Il saute’ – in the second version of Forceval’s Le Congrès [12], dating
from January 1815.74 During the Hundred Days, however, he decided once again to side
with the reinstated Emperor he had betrayed the year before. This spectacular volte-face
might explain the awkward position in which Murat is depicted in Bein’s Le Cabinet noir
[13]: as the clown ‘Pagliaccio’ he is balancing topsy-turvy on his head. In another French
satire Le Gâteau des Rois [14] the parvenu King is shown more respect: he stands at the
conference table, apparently on an equal basis with the Allies and Napoleon, and tears out
a piece of the map of Europe that bears the name of Naples.
In two of his prints, Boneys [sic] Return from Elba [7] and The Congress dis[s]olved [8],
Cruikshank has the Crown Prince of Sweden and the Pope, though both absent, representing
their countries. Obviously, the appearance of these heads of state has to be interpreted in a
symbolic way, but the same cannot be said of the two Allied army commanders who figure
in the satires. Maybe because for a few months Britain was represented by Wellington,
the country’s leading general, Cruikshank, in Boneys [sic] Return from Elba [7], depicts
Field Marshal Blücher, the Prussian supreme commander, side by side with his sovereign
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 11
Frederick William III. This old, but still combative warhorse was invited, but refused to
come.75 More complicated is the inclusion in the French caricature La Balance politique
[19] of Field Marshal Schwarzenberg, another hero of the 1813–14 campaign [19]. As commander in chief of the Austrian army, he attended the Congress infrequently and played
only a minor role as a military adviser.76 Still, in this plate Schwarzenberg conspicuously
represents his country alone.
This observation leads to a surprising conclusion. The caricatures on the Congress not
only depict persons who were absent, they also omit delegates who were present. In personifying the Great Powers by their crowned rulers, the actual situation in Vienna is, thus,
distorted in the case of Austria and Prussia. After all, these countries had their negotiations
not conducted by their Emperor and King, but by their chancellors.77 Consequently, the
Austrian Metternich and his Prussian counterpart Hardenberg entirely disappear from view,
with, apparently, only one exception, namely in the aforementioned La Balance politique
[19].78 In this plate the monarchs of the five Great Powers – the French king Louis XVIII is
also included – are, for once, relegated to the background. There they keep an attentive eye
on the haggling of their representatives in front of them. Easily recognised are Wellington,
in scarlet uniform and with a high-bridged nose, on the far left79, and Talleyrand, with long
white curly hair, on the extreme right. To the Duke’s right stands a Prussian delegate in a
dark-blue coat, who, with his white hair, has a reasonable likeness to Chancellor Hardenberg.
Next to Talleyrand sits a man seen from the back in ‘Russian’ green, who supposedly is
Nesselrode.80 Since the anonymous artist, as said, erroneously conferred the role of Austria’s
chief plenipotentiary on Field Marshal Schwarzenberg instead of Chancellor Metternich,
the latter is excluded from this caricature; and thereby from all satirical prints featuring this
diplomatic gathering. It is the more astounding as Metternich was also the formal president
of the Vienna Congress. This omission would hardly be remedied afterwards, in the scarce
prints featuring the international summit meetings held between 1818 and 1822, notwithstanding the leading role the Austrian Chancellor played in all of them.81
The negotiations portrayed
The most important issue at the Congress was the dispute over Poland and Saxony, which
eventually escalated into a full-blown conflict between Russia and Prussia on the one hand,
and Austria, Britain and France on the other. During the New Year’s Crisis this almost led
to war. Yet, in none of the 20 satires in the corpus – all dating, with the exception of the
two Forceval prints [11, 12], from February 1815 onwards – is there an explicit reference
to this conflict. At the most, in some prints there is an allusion to the resulting animosity
at the Congress table [13, 19]. Lack of information about the actual deliberations seems to
be the most palpable reason for this absence.82
A prominent theme in both printed and pictorial satire on the Vienna Congress is the criticism on the territorial ambitions of the Great Powers. ‘Et n’est-ce pas l’ambition de dominer
et d’accroître leur puissance personnelle qui a réglé toute leur conduite?’83 fulminates, for
example, a Bonapartist pamphlet from May 1815. In caricature this theme is visualised by
various metaphors. In Cruikshank’s The Bungling Tinkers [9], the sovereigns and statesmen
in Vienna are hammering on separate parts of a huge kettle that is marked as the map of
Europe. In his Boneys [sic] Return from Elba [7] they are tailors in a workshop ‘cutting up’
the Continent in line with their own interests.84 In Gauthier’s satire [16], the representatives
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
12 J. Gabriëls
of the five Great Powers appear as card players, indulged in the popular gambling game of
‘Bouillotte’, in which the contested territories serve as mere counters.85
As we have seen, a highly evocative and therefore persistent visual trope in satirical
imagery on diplomatic gatherings is the cutting of a cake. Hence, it is hardly surprising that
it is also used in several caricatures on the Congress of Vienna. One Cruikshank caricature
even has the reference in the caption: The Congress dis[s]olved before the cake was cut up [8].
Two satires mention specifically the cake that is eaten on the Twelfth Night after Christmas,
the eve of the Epiphany. In France it is called Le Gâteau des Rois, a most appropriate name
in the context of the meeting of monarchs in Vienna. The French print thus entitled, presumably made by Saint Phal [14], is patently obvious a parody on the aforementioned
classic engraving on the First Partition of Poland by Le Mire.86 Nonetheless, regardless of
the caricature’s caption, it is a map and not a cake that the crowned rulers are cutting up.
Only Cruikshank’s Twelfth Night [2] actually shows the ‘Twelfth Cake’, of which the icing
bears the names of the countries disputed by the four Great Powers sitting around it.87
Whether inscribed on a card table or a tailor’s cloth, a kettle or a cake, or simply on a map
of Europe, the negotiators reach avidly with their grasping hands for the territories they want
to acquire. Russia wants Poland; Prussia wants Saxony; Austria wants Lombardy and Venice,
and hegemony in Germany. Britain’s aspirations, however, are less obtrusively visualised. In
Cruikshank’s The Bungling Tinkers [9] Castlereagh takes guard over the country’s interests
in Hanover, the electorate that was raised to the status of kingdom in Vienna88; in Gauthier’s
print La Bouillotte [16], Wellington keeps an attentive eye on the Low Countries.89
In the latter caricature, Wellington is the only gambler who has the cards in his hands.
Suggestively, he says: ‘Je fais la jeu.’ The subtheme that Britain secretly determined international politics has a lengthy tradition in graphic imagery, particularly, of course, in France.
Already during the Revolution, this allegation formed a principal element in war rhetoric,
and it was most eagerly emphasised by Napoleon. During his reign, he even personally
ordered the production of such caricatures.90 The suggestion that the politicians in Whitehall
and Westminster were pulling the strings in Europe is poignantly visualised by the French
caricaturist Bein in Le Cabinet noir [13]. In the upper part of his print, we see three unruffled figures dressed in black robes who are described as ‘Les Magiciens’. The person in the
middle is supposed to be the Prince Regent, to whom he otherwise bears no resemblance
whatsoever. He is flanked by a violinist and a cellist, representing the House of Commons
and the House of Lords, who are musically accompanying the monarch’s manipulations.
The evil nature of the trio’s conduct is stressed by a fierce-looking Satan in the background,
holding a torch in each hand. The lower part of the print displays the wrangling sovereigns
in Vienna, who, apparently, are unaware of their being mere marionettes of the London
Cabinet.91
The role of Britain as paymaster to the Continental Allies is shown in two other French
caricatures. In Le Gâteau des Rois [14], the Prince Regent is the only monarch around the
Viennese conference table who is not trying to tear a substantial piece out of the map of
Europe. Instead, standing in the centre of the print and seemingly distanced from the other
heads of state, he holds up a pair of scales, one of which is loaded with gold coins and the
other is empty, except for the label: ‘Le prix du sang!!’ It is an allusion to the subsidies by
which the British government financed the war effort of the Continental powers against
Napoleon.92 The same outrage – even using the same words – was voiced in a Bonapartist
pamphlet from the Spring of 1815: ‘L’Angleterre, forcée de nous [: Français] estimer en
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 13
salariant contre nous les rois de l’Europe, qui depuis vingt ans lui vendent à prix fixe le sang
des peuples qu’ils gouvernent …’93
Again using the visual trope of a pair of scales, the conclusive importance of the British
gold is more prominently visualised in La Balance politique [19]. This French plate seems
to be a perfect illustration of the outcry in another Bonapartist pamphlet from the same
date: ‘Y a-t-il rien de plus dérisoire,’ its author asks rhetorically, ‘que de prétendre vouloir
établir une balance, un équilibre entre les états européens, tant que l’Angleterre pourra
nous dire que, sans la coopération de ses subsides, nous ne pouvons rien entreprendre?’94
La Balance politique suggests that Prussia and Austria’s dispute over Saxony – in the same
way as previous differences over Poland and Italy – had been resolved by abundantly distributing British money.95 Opposite a large package inscribed ‘Saxe’ in one scale, Wellington
places just enough coins and ingots of gold in the other scale to evenly balance the weighing
device. Concurrently, the caricature implies that this way of conducting foreign policy did
not come without a price. For behind the Duke there is an open treasure chest, filled with
papers, over which John Bull bends, uttering his disturbing conclusion: ‘Il ne nous reste
plus que des Banques-notes.’96
That Britain, literally, had to pay a high price to guarantee peace and security on the
Continent, is a subtheme that is also present in British caricatures. What is more, in both
satires Charles William devoted to the Congress of Vienna it takes central place. The
Ambassadors [sic] Return [3] displays an imaginary view of Castlereagh’s impending return
to London, in which the financial burden of British diplomacy in Vienna is referred to in
various ways. The Foreign Secretary, seated on an elephant as a genuine nawab, rides through
a triumphal arch of which the architrave, significantly, is a huge account book inscribed
‘National Le[d]ger’. On top of it are three huge moneybags, each bearing the word ‘Subsidy’.97
In Amusement at Vienna [1], which was inserted as a large coloured fold-out plate in the
February issue of the anti-governmental magazine The Scourge, Williams visualises the
objections from British public opinion to these practices.98 In this satire, Castlereagh is
lavishly disbursing guineas from a large, overfull sack, inscribed ‘Fid[d]lers Subsidy’, to the
delegates, represented here as musicians. The print thus illustrates that the Foreign Secretary
pays the piper, but – contrary to the proverb – fails to call the tune. ‘So! So! This is the way
substance is given for Shadows,’ Cruikshank has John Bull therefore angrily comment on
Castlereagh’s munificence. In other words: Britain’s money may have assured ‘Harmony at
Congress’, but its government neglected to demand appropriate compensations in return.99
Selfish and irresponsible greed
Nevertheless, in Britain, there was not only harsh criticism for the country’s delegates in
Vienna because of their supposed disregard of British interests, but equally for the representatives of the Great Powers in general, who, quite conversely, pursued their own interests
in the most relentless and immoderate way. According to Cruikshank, their behaviour was
both incompetent and irresponsible. In Escape of Buonaparte from Elba [4] he depicts the
representatives of the four Great Powers in Vienna around the conference table, all fast
asleep while Napoleon with his armed forces lands in France.100 In The Bungling Tinkers!
[9] Cruikshank argues that the Big Four were so occupied pursuing their own gains that
this enabled Napoleon to slip away from Elba. Therefore, they were, indirectly at least, to
blame for the renewed threat to the peace in Europe.101 While this ‘Congress of Blockheads’
14 J. Gabriëls
was busy battering ‘Great Europe’s Kettle’, it was unaware that – as the literary satirist Peter
Pindar eloquently put it in the broadside to this caricature 102 –
… Elba’s frightful Gap display’d,
The hole they’d in the kettle made.
Avast! cried one – the hammers stopped,
When from the hole there nimbly popp’d
A man, that made them all to start; –
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
Who could it be? – ’Twas Bonaparte!
Selfish territorial greed not only made the Great Powers fail to perceive the threat still
posed by Napoleon; it also led them to disregard the demands and aspirations of the smaller
nations. In British Parliament the Whig Opposition decried ‘the acts of rapine and aggression of the club of confederated monarchs at Vienna, who appear to have met, not to watch
over the interests of Europe, but as contemners [sic] of public faith and justice ...’103 This
political view is reflected in Cruikshank’s Twelfth Night [2] from February 1815. Cutting
up the European cake, the Great Powers fully ignore four lesser rulers in the shadowy
background behind the table, who address them with the begging words: ‘Pray Gentlemen
spare us a few of the small peices [sic] for we are almost starving.’ In the clouds above the
Big Four, an only half-blinded ‘Lady Justice’ is seen. The scales she holds up are lop-sided,
being violently blown aside by two winds from the sky, inscribed ‘Avarice’ and ‘Ambition’.
This motif is repeated in the orchestra pit, where the cover of the first violin’s music book
reads: ‘Avarice and Ambition an Old Song to a New Tune’.104
The same indignation found expression in two closely related anonymous French caricatures in which the negotiations are represented as the political balancing of national
ambitions on a huge pair of scales. In Vienna, the peoples of various territories are bartered
as ordinary merchandise. The inhabitants are packed together in corded bundles or tightly
stuffed in huge barrels, from which they desperately try to escape. Presumably, this is an
allusion to the Statistical Committee, the most important of the some 11 committees which
had to prepare the Congress’ proceedings.105 Its task was to ascertain as exactly as possible
the numbers of population in the territories under dispute, so as to serve as a quantitative
basis in their final allotment by the Great Powers. For, as Le Nain jaune of 20 January 1815
commented:
Chaque cabinet forme des prétentions exagérées, dans l’espérance d’acquérir quelqu’accroissement de puissance en hommes; car les princes ont reconnu leurs véritables intérêts, et ne
demandent plus de vastes territoires, dont l’étendue n’est pas toujours en proportion avec les
richesses, mais tel ou tel nombre de sujets.106
This emotionless, purely numerical approach directed at the ‘distribution of souls’ – as
a much used contemporary expression had it – is most tellingly visualised in La Balance de
l’Europe rétablie [17].107 In this caricature the Great Powers are literally trying to establish
a quantitative equilibrium between the inhabitants of northern and southern Europe. Tsar
Alexander and King William Frederick are preoccupied with the peoples in the partly
opened packages on the scale inscribed ‘Nord’, holding Russians, Austrians, Prussians
and Saxons. Wellington sides with them, but does not participate in the balancing. Quasialtruistically he addresses the Tsar with the words: ‘Nous vous laissons le continent’. On
the opposite side, Emperor Francis I and a sceptical looking Talleyrand stand close to the
scale inscribed ‘Midi’, on which tied-up bundles with Italians, Spaniards and Frenchmen
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 15
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
are deposited. According to the instructions of the five representatives, a servant with a
scoop takes some extra inhabitants from a barrel inscribed ‘Marchandise commune propre
à former bon poids’ to distribute them evenly over the respective scales.
In La Balance politique [19] – which most likely was made later – the design is
basically similar as in La Balance de l’Europe rétablie, though the point of view slightly
differs, because, as indicated previously, in this caricature it is the diplomats and not the
monarchs that are doing the balancing, while it also castigates the alleged role of British
money in manipulating the negotiations. Nevertheless, La Balance politique voices the same
outraged criticism. When, in May 1815, this satire appeared as a fold-out plate in Le Nain
jaune it was accompanied by a detailed explanation. In it, the proceedings at the Congress
of Vienna are decried in the following inflammatory words:
Il s’est établi à Vienne, depuis environ un an, une bourse politique où se vendent, au plus-offrant, les hommes et les états. Des ministres plénipotentiaires transformés en courtiers de
chair humaine, disposent à leur gré de la vie, de la fortune, et de la liberté de quelques millions
d’hommes …108
Conclusion
Before the middle of the nineteenth century, peace conferences were only incidentally the
subject of international political caricature. To this conclusion, however, the Congress of
Vienna forms a major exception, for an apparently comprehensive corpus of no less than 20
graphic satires contemporaneously representing this diplomatic gathering and originating
from three different countries could be established. In the selection process, some caricatures
traditionally associated with the negotiations in Vienna were discarded, and, conversely,
some satires which hitherto were little or not known came to light.
The relative profusion of graphic imagery on the Congress has everything to do with the
moment at which it was held. The temporary loosening or even the abolition of censorship
in many countries on the Continent during the brief interlude from 1813 to 1815 enabled
graphic satirists to express their views more freely, while the coincidence with Napoleon’s
return from Elba generated inordinate attention from caricaturists.
This combination of the Congress topic with the awe-inspiring event of Napoleon’s reassumption of power is one of the four major themes that can be distinguished within the
corpus of 20 graphic satires. In the British caricatures, ‘Little Boney’ is invariably depicted
as the disturber of peace and security in Europe, while in the French prints – all produced
during the Hundred Days – the reinstated monarch is claiming his rightful place at the
conference table. The second theme pertains to the specific way the negotiators in Vienna
are caricatured. In the selected images from all three countries, the crowned rulers and
plenipotentiaries are reduced to fixed iconographic stereotypes. The third theme relates
to the negotiations themselves, in which the ambition of the Great Powers to enlarge their
states is all domineering. These territorial aspirations are rendered in various visual tropes,
most prominently by the cutting of a huge cake, a persistent metaphor in the satirical depiction of diplomatic gatherings from the late eighteenth century until far into the nineteenth
century and beyond. As a final theme, the consequences of the Great Powers’ greed are to
be distinguished. According to the caricaturists, they are irresponsible, failing to notice
‘Buonaparte’s’ return from Elba while disputing the spoils of post-Napoleonic Europe. At the
same time, the leading European states are also selfish, for avid to enlarge their territories
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
16 J. Gabriëls
by annexations, they disregard the demands and aspirations of the peoples they seek to
incorporate. Because these are bartered as ordinary merchandise, many a satirist found a
fitting metaphor in a pair of scales.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, caricatures in all three countries under
study were published by professional print sellers. As for them commercial considerations
prevailed, they were keen to sell satires that more or less conformed to predominant public
opinion. Neither publishers nor caricaturists were intent on expressing a personal political
view. The audiences were mainly the metropolitan elites, since only they had the money to
pay for the satires and the education to understand and appreciate them.
The British prints on the Congress of Vienna represent the anti-government views of the
Whig Opposition, while the French satires from the Hundred Days are in full accordance
with the stance of Napoleon’s newly instated government. Still, notwithstanding different
national origins and opposite political opinions, the message the selected graphic satires in
both countries convey is a negative one. As such, the caricatures express the same public
denouncement simultaneously voiced in political pamphlets, satirical journals and parliamentary debates, albeit in a more tangible and certainly more personified way: the distinguished gentlemen around the negotiating table in Vienna are irresponsible, incompetent,
indolent, quarrelsome and avaricious.
Notes
1. Zamoyski, Rites of Peace, 553.
2. For instance the British satirical prints: Political Dandies [or] A Kiss at the Congress, a caricature
on the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle by William Heath (18 November 1818) [BM 13007];
The Secrets of Trop-peau disclosed, or the Imbecille Alliance of Tyranny to Crush the Universal
Spirit of Liberty defeated, a caricature on the Congress of Troppau by William Heath (30
January 1821) [BM 14113]; A hasty Sketch at Verona, or the Prophecies of Napoleon unfolding,
a caricature on the Congress of Verona by John Lewis Marks (10 February 1823) [BM 14501];
The Holy Alliance Unmasked, a caricature (presumably) on the Congress of Verona by Edward
Purcell (February 1823) [BM Museum Number: 1985,0119.103].
3. I prefer to reserve the term ‘cartoon’ for post-mid-nineteenth-century satirical imagery. See
the discussion on the use of this term in: Moores, Representations of France, 1–2.
4. The Troelfth Cake / Le Gâteau des Rois, an allegory on the First Partition of Poland in 1772
by Noël Le Mire (1773) [BNF, Hennin 9401]. See also: The Polish Plumb-Cake, a caricature
by John Lodge on the same subject (August 1774) [BM 5229].
5. The Plumb-pudding in Danger, a caricature on the partition of the world between Great Britain
and France by James Gillray (26 February 1805) [BM 10371]. Africa as a cake in A Chacun
sa Part, a cartoon on the Berlin Conference (1884/1885) in L’Illustration, January 1885, and
China as a cake in En Chine: Le Gâteau des Rois et... des Empereurs, cartoon by Henri Meyer
in the Sunday Supplement to Le Petit Journal, 16 January 1898.
6. A hasty Sketch at Verona, or the Prophecies of Napoleon unfolding, a caricature on the Congress
of Verona by John Lewis Marks (10 February 1823) [BM 14501]. Conférence de Londres, a
caricature on the London Conference of 1830/1831 by Honoré Daumier (1832).
7. Cf. Coupe, “Observations,” 80: “The frequency of the political cartoon is proportionate to the
‘conflictfulness’ of a given epoch.”
8. Three recent examples: Franklin and Philp, Napoleon and the Invasion of Britain (2003);
Bryant, Napoleonic Wars in Cartoons (2009); and Clayton and O’Connell, Bonaparte and the
British (2015).
9. Another important general study is: Donald, Age of Caricature (1996). Three recent examples
of thematic studies: Hunt, Defining John Bull (2003); Kremers and Reich, Loyal Subversion?
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 17
(2014); and Moores, Representations of France (2015). Two examples of caricaturists’
biographies: Hill, Mr. Gillray (1965) and Patten, Cruikshank’s Life (1992).
10. Of a more general nature, and not limited to German caricature, are the exhibition catalogues:
Mathis, Napoleon I. im Spiegel der Karikatur (1998) and Cilleßen et al., Napoleons neue Kleider
(2006).
11. Other, more recent, French publications on anti-Napoleon caricatures are the exhibition
catalogue by Fau-Vincenti and Lafon, Napoléon … Aigle ou Ogre? (2004), and Bertaud et al.,
Napoléon, le Monde et les Anglais (2004).
12. There are only very few exceptions to this conclusion: De Waresquiel (Talleyrand, 105–10)
devotes attention to four caricatures featuring Talleyrand at the Vienna Congress. Moores
(Representations of France, 100–1) discusses four prints featuring the Congress in relation to
Napoleon’s return from Elba. Lentz (Nouvelle histoire, 74) and Vick (Congress of Vienna, 84)
briefly mention some caricatures.
13. Cf. Lucie-Smith, Art of Caricature, 7–19; cf. Sherry, “Four Modes of Caricature,” 39–46; cf.
Atherton, Political Prints, 33–8; Streicher, “On a Theory,” 435–7; cf. Coupe “Observations,”
87; cf. Moores, Representations of France, 2–3.
14. Not included for this reason were, for instance, the two caricatures by Jean-Baptiste Gauthier
l'aîné, La Balançoir (May 1815) [BNF, De Vinck, 8064] and Le Tapecu (Spring 1815) [BNF,
De Vinck 8065], Saint Phal’s (?) print, Souvenirs de 1815: Le Destin de la France (Spring
1815) [BNF, Hennin 13726], and Thomas Rowlandson’s satire Scene in a new Pantomime to
be Performed at the Theatre Royal Paris (12 April 1815) [BM 12528].
15. Not included is Johann Michael Voltz, Wir delibriren, ob wir die Stiefel wichsen oder schmieren
[Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin: Gr 90/34.63], a print of which, on the authority
of Voltz’ biographer Karl Hagen (Maler Johann Michael Voltz, 37, 66), is asserted in many
publications that it caricatures the Congress of Vienna. Quite wrongly though, as it actually
is a satire on the municipal councils in post-Congress Germany (cf. Drugulin, Historischer
Bilderatlas, 138; cf. Böhmer, Welt des Biedermeier, 49–50). Furthermore, this print has to be
dated long after the Congress was dissolved. The picture on the wall, next to the window,
shows a giant Napoleon on Saint Helena. On this island, recognisable by its characteristic dual
hills, the former Emperor was imprisoned from 15 October 1815 until his death on 5 May
1821. Not included either was the well-known French satire La Restitution, ou Chaqu’un [sic]
son compte [BNF, De Vinck 9335], that does not represent the Vienna Congress, as is often
alleged, but depicts in fact (the preliminaries of) the First Peace of Paris, and must therefore
be dated in the Spring of 1814.
16. Not included for this reason was, for instance, the anonymous German caricature Soll er los
gelassen werden? (c. July 1815) [BNF, Hennin 13672].
17. The satirical print by the American William Charles, The Congress at Vienna in Great
Consternation (Spring 1815) [BL-CC, b.11(113)], was not included, because it is more an
allegory than a caricature. It is inspired by the allegory on the First Partition of Poland by Le
Mire. See above note 4.
18. Not included for this reason were, for instance, the French prints Grand Dieu, C’est Lui!!, in
two variations (Spring 1815) [BNF, De Vinck 9517 and 9518].
19. Cf. Streicher, “On a Theory,” 433: “The caricature is meant for mass reproduction from the
beginning.” Not included for this reason were, for instance, two anonymous German satires,
namely the watercolour Titelvignette zu den Acten des Wiener Congresses (De la Garde, Gemälde
des Wiener Kongresses, 2) and the coloured drawing Westliche Ansicht von Teutschland [sic] und
den Congress, in Jänuar 1815 (January 1815) [Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna:
Pk 5001]. Déclarations du Congrès de Vienne, 13 et 15 Mars 1815 (1815) [BNF, De Vinck 9524],
being the frontispiece to a book, was also left out, because of its potentially narrow audience.
20. General search terms used relate to the genre (e.g. “caricature”, “satire”) or the kind of
event (e.g. “congress”, “conference”). Specific query terms relate to the period (“1814” and
“1815”), geographical locations (e.g. “Vienna”, “Elba”) and individually named persons (e.g.
“Tsar Alexander”, “Castlereagh”, “Talleyrand”). These key words were applied in multiple
combinations, in English, French and German. Queries on the name of individual artists could
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
18 J. Gabriëls
not be made, as they were not known in advance. Evidently, “Napoleon” or “B(u)onaparte”
did not seem suitable search terms, as the French Emperor dominates most satirical prints
of the time.
21. Other online public collections queried were: the Napoleonic Satires Collection in the
Brown University Library Center for Digital Scholarship in Providence (Rhode Island), the
Digital Images Collection of the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale University, the Bildarchiv und
Grafiksammlung of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the Objektdatenbank
of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin and the digital image database of the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
22. Le Cabinet noir ou: Les Pantins du 19eme Siècle [13] is only mentioned in the passing by
Broadley (Napoleon in Caricature II, 67–8) and might easily be overlooked. La Balance de
l’Europe rétablie au Congrès de Vienne en 1815 [17] is not included in the De Vinck and Hennin
Collections in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and was only fortuitously found
by searching the internet.
23. Clark, Zeitgeist and Zerrbild, 29, 46, 59.
24. Endliches Schiksaal, an allegory on the Congress of Vienna by Friedrich Rosmäsler junior from
Hamburg (before March 1815) [BM 12320]. The remark by Reynst (Friedrich Campe, 43) on
an allegory featuring the Congress of Vienna that one can only comprehend by consulting
some encyclopedias, most likely refers to this print.
25. Clark, Zeitgeist and Zerrbild, 29. An example is the realistic allegory by Johann Michael Voltz,
Der neue Bund […], geschlossen zu Wien den 13n März, als die Nachricht von Buonapartes
Landung in Frankreich eintraf (Spring 1815) [BNF, Hennin 13694].
26. An illustration of this difference in approach is to be found in Romanticism and Caricature
(2013) by Ian Haywood, a representative of the literary studies. In his book (p. 6) the author
compliments historians for the “excellent job of surveying and organising this voluminous
field of popular political imagery”. But, as their “main interest is in the extent to which graphic
satire records or distorts historical events”, he criticises the same historians for their lack
of “close reading and intensive analysis that is normally accorded to ‘serious’ works of art.”
27. Cf. Hill, Mr. Gillray, 118–23.
28. Goldstein, Censorship of political Caricature, 97–101; Duprat, “Guerre des Images,” 490;
Hautecœur, “Famille de Graveurs,” 272, 278, 298–9.
29. Clark, Zeitgeist and Zerrbild, 71–2.
30. Broadley, Napoleon in Caricature I, 54–9; Donald, Age of Caricature, 3–5; Clayton, “London
Printsellers,” 150–1; Hunt, Defining John Bull, 15.
31. Three of the 10 British prints were published by the low-price City firms of John Johnson in
Cheapside [3], Whittle & Laurie in Fleet Street [6] and John Fairburn in Ludgate Hill [9]. Cf.
Clayton, “London Printsellers,” 152–3; cf. Donald, Age of Caricature, 20.
32. Hautecœur, “Famille de Graveurs,” 266–70; Clayton and O’Connell, Bonaparte and the British,
48. Cf. Clerc, Caricature contre Napoléon, 47–8.
33. Reynst, Friedrich Campe, 23–36.
34. Donald, Age of Caricature, 4; Hautecœur, “Famille de Graveurs,” 295. The Nuremberg publisher
Campe was such a staunch admirer of Napoleon, that in 1808 he even named his eldest son
after him. Four years later, after the Emperor’s fatal Russian campaign, he began to publish
anti-Napoleon caricatures, “for, after all, he was an entrepreneur” (Reynst, Friedrich Campe,
30, 42, 46). Cf. Hagen, Maler Johann Michael Voltz, 32.
35. The discussion on whether early nineteenth-century caricatures not only reflected
contemporary public opinion but could also influence their audiences is aptly summarised
in: Moores, Representations of France, 13–17. See also: Donald, Age of Caricature, 44; Hunt,
Defining John Bull, 17, 19; Streicher, “On a Theory,” 442–3; Coupe, “Observations,” 82–4; Hill,
Mr. Gillray, 114; Vick, Congress of Vienna, 84.
36. Patten, George Cruikshank’s Life I, 102, 107.
37. Bryant and Heneage, Dictionary of British Cartoonists, 150–2, 238–9.
38. Rosset, Siècle d’histoire, 173–4; George, Catalogue, 505–6; cf. Guillard, “Origines des Danses.”
The authorship of the two Forceval prints [11, 12] can be ascertained by the small crayfish with
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 19
which this artist used to sign his work (De Waresquiel, Talleyrand, 110). For the identification
of the caricature by G. Bein [13]: Laran, Inventaire, 25. The authorship of the Gauthier print
[16] and of what is most likely a satire by Saint-Phal [14] was established by analogy with the
caricatures by these artists shown in Clerc, Caricature contre Napoléon. See below note 48.
39. Cf. De Waresquiel, Talleyrand, 110: “La caricature [en France] était encore considérée à
l’époque comme un genre mineur. Les artistes ne signaient pas leurs pièces de leur nom, sinon
de leurs initiales ou d’un signe de convention. Cet anonymat ne facilite pas les recherches.”
Cf. Clerc, Caricature contre Napoléon, 46–7.
40. Der Congress (February 1815) is actually a semi-caricature. The three monarchs present
in Vienna are drawn in a highly realistic manner. The only element of caricature is seen
in the background, where a tiny Napoleon on his Mediterranean rocklet, is observing
the deliberations with a huge telescope (Scheffler and Scheffler, So zerstieben getraeumte
Weltreiche, 140). See also above note 25.
41. A nineteenth-century biography: Hagen, Maler Johann Michael Voltz; Reynst, Friedrich
Campe, 38–40.
42. Broadley, Napoleon in Caricature I, 49; Donald, Age of Caricature, 4, 25–7; Clayton and
O’Connell, Bonaparte and the British, 21–2, 48; Evans and Evans, Man who Drew, 22; Clerc,
Caricature contre Napoléon, 51.
43. Reynst, Friedrich Campe, 37–8, 39–40, 44, 46. The quotation, translated from German, is
on p. 39.
44. Patten, George Cruikshank’s Life I, 78–9. Cruikshank characterised this hack work as ‘the
washing of other people’s dirty linen’ (quoted by Hill, Mr. Gillray, 138).
45. Patten, George Cruikshank’s Life I, 78; cf. Hill, Mr. Gillray, 64 note 1.
46. Patten (George Cruikshank’s Life I, 118) mentions the names of several people who, in the
decade 1814–24, supplied Cruikshank with ideas for his prints.
47. Hagen, Maler Johann Michael Voltz, 33.
48. See the anti-Napoleon caricatures by Saint-Phal, the presumed author of Le Gâteau des Rois
[14], in Clerc, Caricature contre Napoléon, 211, 262, 272, and those by Jean-Baptiste Gauthier
l’aîné, the author of La Bouillotte [16], ibidem, 138, 215, 239, 259 290, 297. Cruikshank, who
in his younger years had the reputation of being a “Radical” (Patten, George Cruikshank’s
Life I, 122), also worked for employers of various political affiliations, as the “independent
or Whiggish” periodical The Scourge, the “middle-of-the-road” publisher S.W. Fores and the
“increasingly conservative” publisher Mrs Humphrey (Wardroper, The Caricatures, 14). Cf.
Evans and Evans, Man who Drew, 22: Cruikshank’s political convictions “like his talent, were
at the bidding of anyone who chose to employ him”.
49. On The Scourge see: Sullivan, British literary Magazines, 388–91 and Patten, George Cruikshank’s
Life I, 101. On Le Nain jaune see: Serna, La République des Girouettes, 195–9 and Goldstein,
Censorship of Political Caricature, 101–4.
50. Donald, Age of Caricature, 1; Nicholson, “Consumers and Spectators,” 11.
51. Clayton, “London Printsellers,” 154–61; Donald, Age of Caricature, 20–1; Hunt, Defining
John Bull, 16–17.
52. Donald, Age of Caricature, 5, 7; Hunt, Defining John Bull, 12–13; Hautecœur, “Famille de
Graveurs,” 271. Nicholson (“Consumers and Spectators,” 16–17, 19) critically relativises the
impact of the print-shop window display.
53. Donald, Age of Caricature, 66–73; Clayton and O’Connell, Bonaparte and the British, 24–5;
Clerc, Caricature contre Napoléon, 123; Reynst, Friedrich Campe, 30–1. Cf. Nicholson,
“Consumers and Spectators,” 17: “… most political satires were not intended for, and
therefore made few concessions to, a ‘popular’ audience. ‘Most were characterized by allusive’
iconography and complex formal ‘reading structures’.”
54. Cf. George, Catalogue, xxxvi: “Comparatively few of the satires on the return from Elba are
simple prints on that theme; they combine with it ridicule of the Congress …”
55. In the first version of this print, the person on the far right is a woman, wearing a doge-like
cap. It is an allegorical representation of the Republic of Genoa, the former city-state that the
Congress finally allotted to the Kingdom of Sardinia (cf. Lentz, Nouvelle histoire, 87). Thus,
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
20 J. Gabriëls
the text above her head reads: “Elle saute pour le Roi de Sardaigne.” In the second version
this figure is depicted in exactly the same way; only its head is replaced by that of Joachim
Murat, the King of Naples. De Waresquiel (Talleyrand, 110) seems inclined to date the first
version in the last weeks of 1814. George (Catalogue, 506) argues, more plausibly, that the
first version was probably published in January 1815.
56. De Waresquiel, Talleyrand, 106; Lentz, Nouvelle histoire, 352–6.
57. Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Eugène Delacroix, 96.
58. Hill, Mr. Gillray, 124–32. At the end of his life, in 1842, Cruikshank commented as follows on
the way he once caricatured Napoleon: “As for me, who have skeletonised him prematurely,
paring down the Prodigy even to his hat and boots, I have but ‘carried out’ a principle adopted
almost in my boyhood, for I can scarcely remember the time when I did not take some
patriotic pleasure in persecuting the great Enemy of England” (George Cruikshank’s Omnibus,
28).
59. Feaver, Masters of Caricature, 57; Clerc, Caricature contre Napoléon, 54, 81. Cf. Hill, Mr.
Gillray, 130.
60. George, Catalogue, 526; Broadley, Napoleon in Caricature I, 378.
61. George, Catalogue, 515. These verses are signed with the initials “S.M.B.”
62. Clerc, Caricature contre Napoléon, 96, 124–5.
63. Coupe, “Observations,” 93.
64. In Cruikshank’s The Fox & the Goose [6] the returning Napoleon has the body of a fox,
while the representatives of the four Great Powers in Vienna are geese with human heads. In
The Phenix of Elba resuscitated by Treason [10] the mythical bird Phoenix is portrayed with
Napoleon’s head.
65. Cf. Patten, George Cruikshank’s Life I, 71.
66. In Le Gâteau des Rois [14] there is also a verbal allusion to his clubfoot. Talleyrand, hiding
under the conference table, exclaims ambiguously: “Cachons nous, je suis sur un vilain pied
ici bas … ” (George, Catalogue, 523).
67. Scheffler and Scheffler, So zerstieben getraeumte Weltreiche, 140. Cf. Lentz, Nouvelle histoire, 74.
68. Cf. Duprat, “Guerre des Images,” 493.
69. One print, Twelfth Night [2], dates from before the Hundred Days and shows Louis XVIII as
a mere spectator in the theatre box.
70. From July 1814 to February 1815, Frederick Augustus I was held in Prussian captivity in
Schloß Friedrichsfelde near Berlin. After his release, the Austrian Emperor invited him to
reside in Pressburg, 65 kilometres from Vienna, where several delegates at the Congress
deliberated with him. In May he moved to Schloß Laxenburg, only 20 kilometres from Vienna
The personal representative of the Saxon King at the Congress was Von der SchulenburgKlosterroda (Blank, Der bestrafte König?, 140, 189, 246–8, 255).
71. Cf. Clerc, Caricature contre Napoléon, 95. Mark’s satire The European Pantomine [5] is
also inspired by the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte. As in Bein’s Le Cabinet noir
[13], Napoleon features here as “Harlequin” and Louis XVIII as an infuriated “Pantaloon”.
Furthermore, Napoleon’s second wife, Marie Louise, appears as “Columbine”, while, according
to the caption, the representatives at the Congress of Vienna are represented as “Clowns”
(George, Catalogue, 518–19).
72. Cf. Guillard, “Origines des Danses.”
73. Lentz, Nouvelle histoire, 115–18.
74. See above note 55.
75. In response to the invitation, Blücher reportedly replied: “Was soll ich da bei all’ den
Maulfechtern und Federhelden, die nach Ländern angeln, im Trüben fischen und hin und
her krebsen, und der bunte Bund des einigen Deutschlands uneinig ist; da würden mir nur
wieder die Glacés platzen und die Fausthandschuhe …” (quoted by Scheffler and Scheffler,
So zerstieben getraeumte Weltreiche, 140).
76. Kerchnawe and Veltzé, Feldmarschall Karl Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, 232.
77. Russia’s principal plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna was Nesselrode. However, it was
generally known that in important affairs “it is the Emperor himself who does all.” Nesselrode
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 21
“remained in the background and could only serve his sovereign – when the Emperor’s
confidence permitted – as his secretary or diplomatic spokesman” (Grimsted, The Foreign
Ministers, 210, 225).
78. The assertion of De Waresquiel (Talleyrand, 108) that “cette caricature est sans doute la plus
exacte” of the prints featuring the Congress of Vienna, disregards the many historical errors
La Balance politique [19] contains. The same is true for the “Explication de la Caricature”,
included in the May 15 issue of Le Nain jaune (pp. 191–2). In it, for example, the five monarchs
of the Great Powers in the background are incorrectly described as “plusieurs souverains
subalterns”, and the man in the green uniform, who is seen from the back, is identified as
“l’autocrate des knoutés”, a derogatory epithet for Tsar Alexander I.
79. Apparently, the news that Wellington no longer headed the British delegation since 29 March
1815 had not yet reached the author of this print, six weeks later.
80. In the case of Nesselrode, the caricaturist, noticeably, lacked the documentation to portray
him accurately. This must be the reason why the Russian plenipotentiary is seen from the
back, without showing his face. It might also explain why the civilian Nesselrode is incorrectly
wearing an army uniform.
81. In the four British caricatures mentioned above in note 2, Metternich is only portrayed in A
hasty Sketch at Verona by John Lewis Marks.
82. Zamoyski, Rites of Peace, 390–2; Jarrett, Congress of Vienna, 119–25. Cf. Lentz, Nouvelle histoire,
73–4: “Rares étaient les journaux du temps qui publiaient des analyses et des commentaires sur
les négociations et les questions traitées. […] Parce que les débats internes n’étaient pas connus,
on broda, on s’impatienta, on brocarda, puis on se lassa du congrès.” Nicolson (Congress of
Vienna, 182–3) points out that British Parliamentary Opposition was also unaware of the
exact proceedings in Vienna.
83. Bruguière du Gard, Déclaration de l'Empereur de Russie, 95.
84. George, Catalogue, 514–5, 532–3.
85. Rosset, Siècle d'histoire, 180; Broadley, Napoleon in Caricature II, 62–3.
86. Rosset, Siècle d'histoire, 179; George, English Political Caricature, 158; Broadley, Napoleon in
Caricature II, 64.
87. George, English Political Caricature, 158. Cruikshank’s print is most likely inspired by The
Polish Plumb-Cake, a caricature on the First Partition of Poland by John Lodge (August 1774)
[BM 5229]. The anonymous French print Le Paté indigeste [15] is more or less a variation on
this metaphor. The monarchs of the four Great Powers are ready to carve a huge pie – with
no names of disputed territories inscribed – from which, to their obvious surprise, a small
Napoleon emerges (George, Catalogue, 521). Hence, the main theme of this caricature is not
so much the territorial greed of the Big Four as Napoleon’s unexpected return from Elba,
which abrubtly disturbed the negotiatons in Vienna.
88. Although not a subject of dispute at the conference table, there is also a reference to the British
interests in Hanover in Williams’ Amusement at Vienna [1] and in Cruikshank’s The Phenix
of Elba [10] (George, Catalogue, 504–5, 536).
89. A less explicit allusion is also to be found in La Balance politique [19], where a bale inscribed
‘Belgique’ stands close to Wellington and John Bull. Probably, this is not without a reason
(George, Catalogue, 541).
90. Clayton and O’Connell, Bonaparte and the British, 46, 158. Cf. Hautecœur, “Famille de
Graveurs,” 278–82, 288–95.
91. Cf. Broadley, Napoleon in Caricature II, 67.
92. George, Catalogue, 523. After Napoleon reseized power in Paris, in March 1815, the British
subsidies to pay for the armies the Allies brought into the field were reinstated (Sherwig,
Guineas and Gunpowder, 332–9). For this reason, the Crown Prince of Sweden, in Cruikshank’s
Boneys [sic] Return from Elba [7], seems rather pleased seeing the French Emperor suddenly
reappear. With a grin on his face, he says: “This looks like another subsidy” (George, Catalogue,
515).
93. Dufey, Europe et la France, 62.
94. Bruguière du Gard, Déclaration de l'Empereur de Russie, 63.
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
22 J. Gabriëls
95. The suggestion made in La Balance politique [19] that British money was used to settle
diplomatic disputes in Vienna is not without ground: e.g. Jarrett, Congress of Vienna, 135,
146, 419 note 166.
96. George, Catalogue, 541; Le Nain jaune, 15 May 1815, p. 192.
97. George, Catalogue, 506–7; Zöllner, Wiener Kongress, 155.
98. Shortly afterwards, during the Hundred Days, “radical caricatures [would once again]
emphasize the burdensome costs of resuming military operations” (Patten, George Cruikshank’s
Life I, 105).
99. George, Catalogue, 504–5; idem, English Political Caricature, 159; De Waresquiel, Talleyrand,
109; Lentz, Nouvelle histoire, 74.
100. George, Catalogue, 521; Moores, Representations of France, 101.
101. George, Catalogue, 532.
102. “Peter Pindar” is the pseudonym of the literary satirist John Wolcot (1738–1819).
103. Quoted by Nicolson, Congress of Vienna, 183. Another Whig M.P. spoke of “the monstrous
proceedings of the Robbers at Vienna” (quoted by George, Catalogue, xxxv, 492).
104. George, Catalogue, 491.
105. De Waresquiel, Talleyrand, 107; Zamoyski, Rites of Peace, 387, 420, 561–2; Lentz, Nouvelle
histoire, 88–9; Nicolson, Congress of Vienna, 146–7; Jarrett, Congress of Vienna, 115–6, 130–1.
106. Le Nain jaune, 20 January 1815, p. 73.
107. De Waresquiel, Talleyrand, 107; Zamoyski, Rites of Peace, 386. Cf. the Bonapartist pamphlet
from May 1815 by Bruguière du Gard, Déclaration de l’Empereur de Russie, 85: “[Les
souverains de l’Europe] ont traités les peuples comme de vils troupeaux, en les comptant âmes
par âmes [emphasis mine] comme sur un marché d’animaux.” Cf the Bonapartist pamphlet
by Dufey, Europe et la France, 62: “… les distributions des âmes par le Congrès de Vienne …”
108. Le Nain jaune, 15 May 1815, p. 192.
Acknowledgements
This article is a revised and expanded version of an unpublished paper presented at the conference
‘Vienna 1815: the Making of a European Security Culture’ in Amsterdam on 5–7 November 2014.
I would like to thank the journal’s anonymous reviewers for critically reading the manuscript and
suggesting substantial improvements. I am also grateful to Professor Marjolein ’t Hart and Dr Chris
Grayson for their useful comments on an earlier draft.
Notes on contributor
Jos Gabriëls is a senior researcher at the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands in The
Hague. He specialises in the political and military history of the Napoleonic era, with a special interest
in biographical and prosopographical research. He has published, among other topics, on Napoleon’s
court during the Consulate and on King Louis Bonaparte of Holland and the armed forces. Currently
he is working on a book about Roustam, the Mamelukes and Napoleon.
Bibliography
Surveyed caricature collections
Abbreviations for the surveyed caricature collections used in the Notes and in the Appendix:
BM: British Museum in London: Department of Prints and Drawings. See: Catalogue of Political and
Personal Satires preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. 11 vols.
London: British Museum, 1870–1954.
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 23
BL-CC: Bodleian Library, University of Oxford: Curzon Collection. URL: http://www2.odl.ox.ac.
uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?site=localhost&a=p&p=about&c=politi04&ct=0%20&l=en&w=iso-8859-1
(Accessed 1 April 2016).
BNF, Hennin: Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris: Hennin Collection. See: Georges Duplessis,
Inventaire de la collection d’estampes relatives à l’histoire de France léguée en 1863 à la Bibliothèque
nationale par Michel Hennin. 5 vols. Paris: Alph. Piccard, 1877–84.
BNF, De Vinck: Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris: De Vinck Collection. See: Un sieˋcle
d’histoire de France par l’estampe, 1770–1871. Collection de Vinck, inventaire analytique. 8 vols.
Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1909–79.
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
Secondary sources
Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Nina Maria. Eugène Delacroix: Prints, Politics and Satire 1814–1822. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.
Atherton, Herbert M. Political Prints in the Age of Hogarth: A Study of the Ideographic Representation
of Politics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974.
Bertaud, Jean-Paul, Allan Forrest, and Annie Jourdan. Napoléon, le Monde et les Anglais: Guerre des
Mots et des Images. Paris: Éditions Autrement, 2004.
Blank, Isabella. Der bestrafte König?: Die Sächsische Frage, 1813–1815. Heidelberg University 2013,
http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/15630/1/Der%20bestrafte%20K%C3%B6nig_
Dissertation%20Blank.pdf (Accessed 1 April 2016).
Böhmer, Günter. Die Welt des Biedermeier. Munich: Desch, 1968.
Broadley, A.M. Napoleon in Caricature, 1795–1821. 2 vols. London: John Lane, 1911.
Bruguière du Gard, J.-T. Déclaration de l’Empereur de Russie aux Souverains réunis au Congrès de
Vienne, du 1er – 15 mai 1815, sur les Affaires politiques, amenées en France par le Retour de Napoléon
Bonaparte, avec des Notes critiques et politiques. Paris: Ant. Beraud, Mai 1815.
Bryant, Mark. Napoleonic Wars in Cartoons. London: Grub Street, 2009.
Bryant, Mark, and Simon Heneage eds. Dictionary of British Cartoonists and Caricaturists, 1730–1980.
Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1994.
Cilleßen, Wolfgang, Rolf Reichardt, and Christian Deuling eds. Napoleons neue Kleider: Pariser und
Londoner Karikaturen im klassischen Weimar. Berlin: G+H Verlag, 2006.
Clark, Frazer S. Zeitgeist and Zerrbild: Word, Image and Idea in German Satire, 1800–1848. Bern:
Peter Lang, 2006.
Clayton, Timothy. “The London Printsellers and the Export of English Graphic Prints.” In Loyal
Subversion? Caricatures from the Personal Union between England and Hanover (1714–1837), Edited
by Anorthe Kremers and Elisabeth Reich, 140–161. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2014.
Clayton, Timothy, and Sheila O’Connell. Bonaparte and the British: Prints and Propaganda in the Age
of Napoleon. London: The British Museum, 2015.
Clerc, Catherine. La Caricature contre Napoléon. Paris: Promodis, 1985.
Coupe, W. A. “Observations on a Theory of Political Caricature.” Comparative Studies in Society and
History 11 (1969): 79–95.
Donald, Diana. The Age of Caricature: Satirical Prints in the Reign of George III. New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 1996.
Drugulin, Wilhelm. Historischer Bilderatlas: Verzeichnis einer Sammlung von Einzelblättern zur Culturund Staatengeschichte vom fünfzehnten bis in das neunzehnte Jahrhundert. vol. 1, Vorstudien. Leipzig:
Leipziger Kunst-Comptoir, 1863.
Dufey [, Pierre]. L’Europe et la France en 1792 et 1815. Paris: Babeuf, 1815.
Duprat, Annie. “Une Guerre des Images: Louis XVIII, Napoléon et la France en 1815.” Revue d’Histoire
moderne et contemporaine 47 (2000): 487–504.
Evans, Hilary, and Mary Evans. The Man who Drew the Drunkard’s Daughter: The Life and Art of
George Cruikshank, 1792–1878. London: Frederick Muller, 1978.
Fau-Vincenti, Véronique, and Eric Lafon eds. Napoléon … Aigle ou Ogre? Montreuil: Musée de
l’Histoire vivante, 2004.
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
24 J. Gabriëls
Feaver, William. Masters of Caricature: From Hogarth and Gillray to Scarfe and Levine. New York:
Knopf, 1981.
Franklin, Alexandra, and Mark Philp. Napoleon and the Invasion of Britain. Oxford: The Bodleian
Library, 2003.
Garde, [August Louis Charles] de la. Gemälde des Wiener Kongresses, 1814–1815: Erinnerungen, Feste,
Sittenschilderungen, Anekdoten. Edited by Gustav Gugitz. 2 vols. Munich: Georg Müller, 1912.
George Cruikshank’s Omnibus. London: Tilt and Bogue, 1842.
George, Mary Dorothy. Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires preserved in the Department of
Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, vol. 9, 1811–1819. London: British Museum, 1947.
George, Mary Dorothy. English Political Caricature: A Study of Opinion and Propaganda, vol. 2,
1793–1832. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1959.
Goldstein, Robert Justin. Censorship of Political Caricature in Nineteenth-Century France. Kent, OH:
Kent State University Press, 1989.
Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. The Foreign Ministers of Alexander I: Political Attitudes and the Conduct
of Russian Diplomacy, 1801–1825. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.
Guillard, Baptiste, and Yves Guillard. “Aux Origines des Danses de Caractères: L’Anglaise au Congrès
de Vienne (1814–1815)”, http://ares-ethno.chez-alice.fr/congresdevienne%28.html (Accessed 1
April 2016).
Hagen, Karl. Der Maler Johann Michael Voltz von Nördlingen und seine Beziehungen zur Zeit- und
Kunstgeschichte in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart: Ebner and Geubert, 1863.
Hautecœur, Louis. “Une Famille de Graveurs et d’Éditeurs parisiens: Les Martinet et les Hautecœur
(XVIIIe et XIXe siècles).” Paris et Ile-de-France: Mémoires publiés par la Fédération des Sociétés
historiques et archéologiques de Paris et de l’Île-de-France 18/19 (1967/1968): 205–340.
Haywood, Ian. Romanticism and Caricature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Hill, Draper. Mr. Gillray, the Caricaturist: A Biography. London: The Phaidon Press, 1965.
Hunt, Tamara L. Defining John Bull. Political Caricature and National Identity in late Georgian England.
Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2003.
Jarrett, Mark. The Congress of Vienna and its Legacy: War and Great Power Diplomacy after Napoleon.
London: I.B. Tauris, 2013.
Kerchnawe, Hugo, and Alois Veltzé. Feldmarschall Karl Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, der Führer der
Verbündeten in den Befreiungskriegen: Eine Biographie. Vienna: Gerlach and Wiedling, 1913.
Kremers, Anorthe, and Elisabeth Reich eds. Loyal Subversion?: Caricatures from the Personal Union
between England and Hanover (1714–1837). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2014.
Laran, Jean. Inventaire du Fonds français après 1800, vol. 2. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1937.
Lentz, Thierry. Nouvelle histoire du Premier Empire, vol. 4, Les Cent Jours. Paris: Fayard, 2010.
Lucie-Smith, Edward. The Art of Caricature. London: Orbis Publishing, 1981.
Mathis, Hans Peter, et al. eds. Napoleon I. im Spiegel der Karikatur. Zürich: Verlag Neue Zürcher
Zeitung, 1998.
Moores, John Richard. Representations of France in English Satirical Prints, 1740–1832. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Le Nain jaune, ou Journal des Arts, des Sciences et de la Littérature. Paris: Imprimerie De Fain, 1814–
1815.
Nicholson, Eirwen E.C. “Consumers and Spectators: The Public of the Political Print in EighteenthCentury England.” History 81 (1996): 5–21.
Nicolson, Harold. The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity, 1812–1822. London: Constable,
1946.
Patten, Robert L. George Cruikshank’s Life, Times, and Art. 2 vols. London: The Lutterworth Press,
1992-1996.
Reynst, Elisabeth. Friedrich Campe und sein Bilderbogen-verlag zu Nürnberg: Mit einer Schilderung
des Nürnberger Kunstbetriebes im 18. und in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Nuremberg:
Staatsbibliothek, 1962.
Rosset, Anne-Marie. Un Siècle d’Histoire de France par l’Estampe, 1770–1871: Collection de Vinck,
Inventaire analytique, vol. 5, La Restauration et les Cent-Jours. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1938.
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 25
Scheffler, Sabine, and Ernst Scheffler. So zerstieben getraeumte Weltreiche: Napoleon I. in der deutschen
Karikatur. Stuttgart: Hatje, 1995.
Serna, Pierre. La République des Girouettes (1789–1815 … et au-delà). Une Anomalie politique: La
France de l’Extrême centre. Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2005.
Sherry, James. “Four Modes of Caricature. Reflections upon a Genre.” Bulletin of Research in the
Humanities 87 (1986–87): 29–62.
Sherwig, John. Guineas and Gunpowder: British Foreign Aid in the Wars with France, 1793–1815.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.
Streicher, Lawrence H. “On a Theory of Political Caricature.” Comparative Studies in Society and
History 9 (1966–67): 427–445.
Sullivan, Alvin. British Literary Magazines, vol. 2, The Romantic Age, 1789–1836. Westport, CT and
London: Greenwood Press, 1983.
Vick, Brian E. The Congress of Vienna: Power and Politics after Napoleon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 2014.
Wardroper, John. The Caricatures of George Cruikshank. London: Gordon Fraser Gallery, 1977.
Waresquiel, Emmanuel de, ed. Talleyrand ou le Miroir trompeur. Paris: Somogy, 2005.
Zamoyski, Adam. Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon & the Congress of Vienna. London: HarperPress,
2007.
Zöllner, Erich, et al. Der Wiener Kongress, 1. September 1814 bis 9. Juni 1815. Vienna: Hofburg, 1965.
Great Britain Twelfth Night or, What you
Will! – Now performing at
the Theatre Royal Europe,
with new Scenery
Decrorations [sic] &c &c &c
Great Britain The Ambassadors [sic] Return
– or – A New Arival from
Congress
2
Great Britain Boneys [sic] Return from Elba
– or the Devil among the
Tailors
Great Britain The Congress disolved [sic]
before the Cake was cut up
7
8
6
George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank
Great Britain The European Pantomine.
John Lewis Marks
Princeaple [sic] Caracters
Harliquin Mr Boney
Pantaloon Louis XVIII Columbine Maria Louiza Clowns &c
By Congress
Great Britain The Fox & the Goose; or, Boney George Cruikshank
Broke Loose!
5
George Cruikshank
Great Britain Escape of Buonaparte from
Elba
Charles Williams
George Cruikshank
Artist
Charles Williams
4
3
Country
Title of the Caricature
Great Britain Amusement at Vienna, alias
Harmony at Congress, i.e.
Paying the Pipers
Nr.
1
Publishing Date
1 February 1815
March 1815 (?)
March 1815
1 March 1815
Samuel Fores, London
(50 Piccadilly)
6 April 1815
Hannah Humphrey,
21 March 1815
London (27, St. James's [antedated]
Street)
Whittle & Laurie, London 17 March 1815
(53 Fleet Street)
Unknown
G. Smeeton, London (17
St. Martin's Lane)
John Johnson, London
(98, Cheapside)
Hannah Humphrey,
January 1815
London (27, St. James's [antedated]
Street)
Publisher
The Scourge
Appendix: Twenty Political Caricatures featuring the Congress of Vienna
BM 12525
BM 12509
BM 12506
BM 12515
BM 12518
BM 12501
BM 12453
Collection
BM 12499
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/
collection_online/collection_object_details.
aspx?objectId=1646004&partId=1&searchText=12506&page=1
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1645988&partId=1&people=76849&peoA=76849-1-9&page=1
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/
collection_online/collection_object_details.
aspx?objectId=1646058&partId=1&searchText=congress+cruikshank&page=1
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/
collection_online/collection_object_details.
aspx?objectId=1481122&partId=1&searchText=vienna+congress&object=20582&page=1
http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/
library?e=q-000-00---0politi04--00-0-00prompt-10---4----dtt--0-1l--1-en-50---20about-Escape+of+Buonaparte+from+Elba--00001-001-1-1isoZz-8859Zz1-0&a=d&c=politi04&cl=search&d=politi004-ahn
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/
collection_online/collection_object_details.
aspx?objectId=1481120&partId=1&searchText=vienna+congress&object=20582&page=1
URL (Accessed 1 April 2016)
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/
collection_online/collection_object_details/
collection_image_gallery.aspx?partid=1&assetid=76860001&objectid=1481092
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/
collection_online/collection_object_details.
aspx?objectId=1645666&partId=1&searchText=Twelfth+night+&images=true&page=2
26 J. Gabriëls
France
France
France
France
France
France
France
France
France
Germany
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Saint Phal
[Presumably]
Anonymous /
unidentified
Der Congress
Mr Tout-à-Tous ou le Modèle
de reconnaissance, au
Congrès de Vienne
La Balance politique
Spring 1815
January 1815
January 1815
1 May 1815
April 1815 (?)
Spring 1815
Spring 1815
February 1815 (?)
Aaron Martinet, Paris(15 29 April, 1815
Rue du Coq-SaintHonoré)
Le Nain jaune
15 May 1815
Gauthier, Paris (5 Rue
Saint-Jacques)
Aaron Martinet,
Paris (15 Rue du
Coq-Saint-Honoré)
A.J.B. Choizeau, Paris (30 Spring 1815
Rue Saint-Jacques?)
Lambert, Paris (51 Rue
Spring 1815
Saint-Jacques?)
Bein, Paris (2 Rue de
l’Échaudé)
Unknown
Unknown
The Scourge
John Fairburn, London
(2 Broadway, Ludgate
Hill)
Anonymous / unidentified
Johann Michael Voltz Friedrich Campe,
Nuremberg
(Kaiserstraße)
Anonymous / unidentified
Jean-Baptiste
Gauthier l'aîné
La Balance de l'Europe rétablie Anonymous /
au Congrès de Vienne en
unidentified
1815
La Bouillotte
Le Gâteau des Rois, Tiré au
Congrès de Vienne en 1815
Le Paté indigeste
Le Congrès [Version 1, with
Forceval
Genoa]
Le Congrès [Version 2, with
Forceval
Murat]
Le Cabinet noir ou: Les Pantins G. Bein
du 19eme Siècle
Great Britain The Phenix of Elba resuscitated George Cruikshank
by Treason
10
George Cruikshank
Great Britain The Bungling Tinkers! or, Congress of Blockheads! Who
Battered a Hole in Great
Europe's Kettle
9
http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/
library?e=q-000-00---0politi04--00-00-0prompt-10---4----dtt--0-1l--1-en-50--20-about-blockheads--00001-001-11isoZz-8859Zz-1-0&a=d&c=politi04&cl=search&d=politi004-ahz
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/
collection_online/collection_object_details.
aspx?objectId=1646227&partId=1&searchText=vienna+congress&object=20582&page=1
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84139434
BNF, Hennin 13669 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84139419
BNF, De Vinck 9512 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b69546380
BNF, Département
http://napoleon1er.perso.neuf.fr/Caricatures7.
des Estampes. QB-1 html
(1815-01), cliché:
70-C-43142
BNF, De Vinck 9523 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6954649s
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/
collection_online/collection_object_details.
aspx?objectId=1338628&partId=1
BNF, De Vinck 9522 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6954648c
BM 12519
http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/
library?e=q-000-00---0politi04--00-0-00prompt-10---4----dtt--0-1l--1-en-50---20about-pantins--00001-001-1-1isoZz-8859Zz1-0&a=d&c=politi04&cl=search&d=modhis001-afb
BNF: De Vinck 9521 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6954647z
BL-CC, b.07(103)
BNF: Hennin,
13671
BNF, De Vinck 9505 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b69546313
BM 12537
BL-CC, b.5(206)
Downloaded by [192.87.139.143] at 00:46 28 June 2016
European Review of History–Revue européenne d’histoire 27