Spanish-Patriots Attacking the French-Banditti– Loyal Britons Lending a Lift

James Gillray|Hannah Humphrey

August 15, 1808 · Hand-colored etching · Drawings and Prints

Gillray created this dynamic satire to celebrate a Spanish-British victory over an overwhelmingly superior enemy at the Battle of Bailén in southern Spain, during the Peninsular War (1807–14). His dynamic conception encapsulates a rare defeat for French occupying forces on July 16–19, 1808. In the left background, members of a Spanish outpost fire at fleeing opponents below while, in the middle distance, a trumpet-blowing monk on horseback rallies followers with the help of a bishop armed with sword and crosier. Greatest attention is given to a series of foreground skirmishes. These center on enraged nuns who engage soldiers in hand-to-hand combat, one grasping the hair of a French general whose tall thin physique identifies him as Pierre Dupont de l’Étang. Near barrels of British gunpowder at left, Spanish men and women dressed in old fashioned attire load a canon while, at right,a sturdy British grenadier bayonets emaciated French soldiers and tramples a tricolour flag lettered "Invincible Legion." The latter gruesome grouping embodies the "lift" of the title in a vebal-visual pun typical of Gillray's unflinching wit (see 2015.455 for a related drawing).

Artist

James Gillray|Hannah Humphrey

Date

August 15, 1808

Medium

Hand-colored etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917