The King of Brobdingnag and Gulliver.–Vide. Swift's Gulliver: Voyage to Brobdingnag

James Gillray

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, perches on the hand of his enemy King George III who regards him through a spyglass. Five weeks before this print was published, the tenuous Peace of Amiens between Britain and France had broken down. The title refers to Jonathan’s Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), in which the protagonist visits a land of giants, describes his nation’s political system to the king, and provokes a disgusted response. At first glance, this seems a supremely confident image: the huge figure of King George can barely see his tiny enemy. But Napoleon’s swagger and unsheathed saber hint at danger. Indeed, once hostilities resumed, the French began to construct an invasion fleet at Boulogne, and Londoners feared that they might soon see enemies marching up Piccadilly. Gillray’s prints helped to establish a paradigmatic image of Napoleon.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art