Description:
Black and white print titled "The Times / Plate 1" and "Designed & Engraved by W. Hogarth" and "Published as the Act Directs / Sept 7 1762." Plate 1 combines a pictorial defence of the then prime minister, the Earl of Bute (1713-1792), with a sustained attack on his predecessor William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778). Whereas Pitt was associated with an aggressive stance towards Britain’s French and Spanish opponents in the Seven Years’ War, Bute came to power determined to end this victorious but expensive conflict. The chaotic scene of a city on fire allegorises the contemporary state of Europe. Pitt is shown on stilts (he famously wore crutches) in the center right, fanning the flames of war. Around his neck he wears a millstone inscribe "3000 £ per annum," his pension at retirement. The heroic fireman at the centre of the image – representing either Bute or the king himself - is trying to prevent the fire from enveloping the rest of the world, while being fired upon by a trio of men who include Pitt’s journalistic supporters, John Wilkes (1727-1797) and Charles Churchill (1731-1764), an English poet and satirist.. Others are huddled near their belongings as a man plays a fiddle.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+69.1339 |
