Democratic innocence ; Democratic humility

Gillray, James, 1756-1815 · May 12, 1800

Two panels from a sequence of eight designs, arranged in two rows, titled "Democracy - or - a Sketch of the Life of Buonaparte." [Left] Democratic Innocence. The young Buonaparte & his wretched Relatives, in their native Poverty, while Free Booters in the Island of Corsica: The interior of a wretched hut, a fire burning on an open hearth, a tattered cloth hanging from a line. On a heap of straw sits a fat ragged woman, nursing an infant who pulls her nose. Five ragged children fight round an empty dish (on an upturned tub) for a large bare bone which one (Napoleon) has seized and is gnawing. The father enters, carrying on his back a lean chamois. His dog barks at an angry cat who has caught a rat. An axe and sword hang from the rough stone wall. A grotesque travesty of the household of Carlo and Letizia Buonaparte. [Right] Democratic Humility. Buonaparte, when a boy, received thro the King's bounty into the Ecole Militaire at Paris: A stiff Court Chamberlain, like Lord Salisbury in caricature, leads by the hand the barefooted and ragged little Bonaparte, who advances trembling towards the chair at which sits the officer in command of the school, holding out his hand to the child in a friendly manner. On the table before him are plans of forts, books. Three small cadets in uniform stand beside him. Crossed foils are on the floor. In the background beneath a portrait of Louis XVI (decapitated by the upper margin) are two rows of boys. There are a small cannon, a globe, a diagram of sword exercises, etc. Bonaparte, in 1779, aged nine, was admitted to the military school at Brienne, his expenses defrayed by Louis XVI (BM).