In early 1745, a terrible year for Britain, Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s attempt to overthrow the House of Hanover and restore the House of Stuart to Britain was being taken very seriously. By Sept, rebellion in Scotland by the Highland Jacobite army seemed to be succeeding. By late 1745 the Young Pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite men had marched south to Manchester, opposed by two armies commanded by the Duke of Cumberland. At the end of the year, Bonnie Prince Charlie and his army were marching north of London! Orders were issued that all Grenadier Guards should march immediately to the encampment at Finchley Common. The Duke of Cumberland and his troops were the last barrier between the Stuart prince and London.
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11th Lord Lovat in St Albans, 1747
The National Gallery of Scotland has the print, but they did not explain why Hogarth went to see Lovat while he was in custody in St Albans, en route for his trial for high treason in London. Certainly Lovat was the last of the rebel Scottish lords to be executed after the Jacobite Rebellion, so perhaps Hogarth saw a chance to make money. In the event, Hogarth printed some 10,000 copies of this etching, which were sold for a shilling a print!
Hogarth was not impressed when he visited France in 1748, and decided to return home early. While waiting at Calais for a boat, he sat down to sketch the city gate. Beneath the city gate of Calais, a chef struggled to carry English beef destined for British travellers at the English Inn in Calais. Alas Hogarth was arrested in error for espionage and sent home. The painting O The Roast Beef of Old England was his revenge. In the centre a waiter was struggling under a hunk of beef intended for red-blooded British tourists. Naturally, Hogarth believed, the feeble-looking French soldiers who lived on snails and onions would envy the beef. Hogarth depicted himself sketching, the heavy hand of the French law about to land on his shoulder. He was clearly saying that Britain’s enemies, the French, Scottish highlanders and Irish Catholics, were weedy and pathetic.
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This works were Hogarth's warning to Britain. But despite the haranguing Jacobite, the young Briton and his young mistress appeared to be moving forward together in step: Britain had already made up its mind.
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A Scottish Jacobite supporter, just Prior to His Execution
At least during the next year, God must have been Protestant. A battle was fought on Culloden Moor near Inverness in 1746 between supporters of the exiled House of Stuart on one side and the Duke of Cumberland’s British army on the other. The government victory ended the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion and resulted in the closing down of Highland culture... to punish the Stuart supporters. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in Oct 1748 finally ended hostilities between Britain and France, meaning that no French-sponsored attempt to restore the Stuarts would ever re-occur.
My question is: why did William Hogarth (1697–1764) paint themes dealing with the Jacobite Rebellion, after it had been crushed? Consider his engraving of the Jacobite Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat prior to his execution in 1747. This leader of Clan Fraser had unlimited personal ambition. He recruited a small regiment in apparent service to William and Mary but was actually planning to desert to the Stuarts. In fact he sneakily converted to Catholicism, to have an entry into those exiled Stuarts and their French allies.
My question is: why did William Hogarth (1697–1764) paint themes dealing with the Jacobite Rebellion, after it had been crushed? Consider his engraving of the Jacobite Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat prior to his execution in 1747. This leader of Clan Fraser had unlimited personal ambition. He recruited a small regiment in apparent service to William and Mary but was actually planning to desert to the Stuarts. In fact he sneakily converted to Catholicism, to have an entry into those exiled Stuarts and their French allies.
The National Gallery of Scotland has the print, but they did not explain why Hogarth went to see Lovat while he was in custody in St Albans, en route for his trial for high treason in London. Certainly Lovat was the last of the rebel Scottish lords to be executed after the Jacobite Rebellion, so perhaps Hogarth saw a chance to make money. In the event, Hogarth printed some 10,000 copies of this etching, which were sold for a shilling a print!
Hogarth was not impressed when he visited France in 1748, and decided to return home early. While waiting at Calais for a boat, he sat down to sketch the city gate. Beneath the city gate of Calais, a chef struggled to carry English beef destined for British travellers at the English Inn in Calais. Alas Hogarth was arrested in error for espionage and sent home. The painting O The Roast Beef of Old England was his revenge. In the centre a waiter was struggling under a hunk of beef intended for red-blooded British tourists. Naturally, Hogarth believed, the feeble-looking French soldiers who lived on snails and onions would envy the beef. Hogarth depicted himself sketching, the heavy hand of the French law about to land on his shoulder. He was clearly saying that Britain’s enemies, the French, Scottish highlanders and Irish Catholics, were weedy and pathetic.
O The Roast Beef of Old England, 1748
The Tate London
Hogarth’s The March of the Guards to Finchley 1749 may have been intended as a satire, poking fun at an unprepared British government and a chaotic army. But The March to Finchley was painted AFTER the Jacobite rebellion had been defeated. It seems that Hogarth was warning his fellow citizens that even now they had to remain on alert; that the French could never be trusted! Beneath the sign of the Adam and Eve tavern, a French dandy whispered of an imminent invasion to an ecstatic or demented Jacobite sympathiser. The haggard woman with a swinging crucifix clutched Catholic and anti-government newspapers! On the other arm was a very pregnant woman, a basket on her arm with a scroll saying God Save the King. The soldier was Hogarth's Britain; the two women were fighting for his loyalty.
This works were Hogarth's warning to Britain. But despite the haranguing Jacobite, the young Briton and his young mistress appeared to be moving forward together in step: Britain had already made up its mind.
The March of the Guards to Finchley, 1749
Thomas Coram Foundling Museum
There were two didactic Invasion Prints c1756 (at the Tate) produced by Hogarth at the outbreak of the Seven Years War of 1756–1763 when an invasion from France again seemed likely. In Invasion France, a French monk sharpened his executioner's axe. In front of him were implements of torture and Catholic icons. With such items he was preparing to convert the British to Catholicism. Behind him was a grouping of French soldiers, representing chaos i.e starvation and fanaticism. In Invasion England the citizens were healthy, happy and prosperous. The English tavern had a large beefsteak on the table, along with a mug of beer, and weapons on the table. Clearly the French would never taste England's prized produce. In the background, eager British soldiers drilled in an orderly manner.
These images were in sharp contrast. On one hand Hogarth was a powerful critic of French society and military terror. On the other hand he was a warm supporter of English freedom and courage.
What was Hogarth’s artistic goal in getting involved in the Jacobite Rebellion? Hogarth saw great dangers in Catholicism and thoroughly distrusted the French. Would depicting the Jacobite Rebellion have any negative influence on his income stream or reputation? Apparently not, if his experience with Lord Lovat was a guide. In any case, Hogarth was a canny artist. Note the “March to Finchley” print was dedicated to Frederick II, a Prussian king, rather than King George II. King George had blotted his copy book by appointing another artist to the post of Painter in Ordinary to the King, a position Hogarth wanted.
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The UK will hold a referendum on 23rd June 2016 to decide if the nation will stay in or leave the European Union. Years after I first wrote this post, Jonathan Jones is now reinterpreting the Hogarth painting O The Roast Beef of Old England in contemporary terms. The painting can help us understand what is going on in the mind of the Brexit-leaning public in Britain because it was the funniest slice of cocksure nationalism in British art. It sneered at France and, by extension, the entire European continent.
Hogarth's painting O! The Roast Beef of Old England was a tease – there was no hate in it. It expressed a more subtle sentiment: economic superiority. So the impulse driving Britain towards isolation now may not be bigotry, fear of The Other or any of the other horrors that Remainers imagine. It may be to do with the economy after all.
These images were in sharp contrast. On one hand Hogarth was a powerful critic of French society and military terror. On the other hand he was a warm supporter of English freedom and courage.
What was Hogarth’s artistic goal in getting involved in the Jacobite Rebellion? Hogarth saw great dangers in Catholicism and thoroughly distrusted the French. Would depicting the Jacobite Rebellion have any negative influence on his income stream or reputation? Apparently not, if his experience with Lord Lovat was a guide. In any case, Hogarth was a canny artist. Note the “March to Finchley” print was dedicated to Frederick II, a Prussian king, rather than King George II. King George had blotted his copy book by appointing another artist to the post of Painter in Ordinary to the King, a position Hogarth wanted.
**
The UK will hold a referendum on 23rd June 2016 to decide if the nation will stay in or leave the European Union. Years after I first wrote this post, Jonathan Jones is now reinterpreting the Hogarth painting O The Roast Beef of Old England in contemporary terms. The painting can help us understand what is going on in the mind of the Brexit-leaning public in Britain because it was the funniest slice of cocksure nationalism in British art. It sneered at France and, by extension, the entire European continent.
Hogarth's painting O! The Roast Beef of Old England was a tease – there was no hate in it. It expressed a more subtle sentiment: economic superiority. So the impulse driving Britain towards isolation now may not be bigotry, fear of The Other or any of the other horrors that Remainers imagine. It may be to do with the economy after all.