Reform Advised. Reform Begun. Reform Compleat.

Artist Thomas Rowlandson (British, 1757 - 1827)

Date1793

MediumEtching with hand coloring

DimensionsImage: 16 x 9 3/4 in. (40.6 x 24.8 cm)

Credit LinePurchased with funds provided by the Humanities Center

CultureBritish

Catalogue raisonnéGrego I.319, II.394; British Museum Satires 8289

Object numberPC2021.06.02

ClassificationsPrint Collection

DescriptionThree sequential bands satirizing the French Revolution. The allegorical figure of John Bull attempts to placate French rebels only to be trampled in the end. In the first (top) panel a corpulent John Bull sits holding a stein before a table spread with mutton and beer, extolling "The blessed effects of a good Constitution." Bedraggled French revolutionaries approach and chide his fatness and want of reform. In the middle panel a ragged John Bull, holding a frog and with a peg leg, complains that "you have deprived me of my leg and given me nothing but Frogs to eat." The French revolutionaries approach with clubs and knives; one orders him to eat the frog, another remarks "His a little leaner now." In the bottom panel the revolutionaries trample on John Bull who cries "Oh-h-o French Fraternity."

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