The blessings of peace, the curses of war / desgn'd & engrav'd by Js. Gy. for the chariman & members of the Crown & Anchor Society.

Image not available
James Gillray
1756-1815
The blessings of peace, the curses of war / desgn'd & engrav'd by Js. Gy. for the chariman & members of the Crown & Anchor Society.
aquatint
image: 30.3 x 36.2 cm; plate: 32.6 x 37.7 cm; sheet: 33 x 38.7 cm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2848
Published: 
[London] : H. Humphrey, 1795.
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Summary: 

A design in two adjacent circles, with inscriptions above and below the circles on an aquatinted ground. In the manner of genre, not satire. [1] The kitchen of a young English farmer who sits with his arm round a little boy (right) who stands at his knee eating an apple, while his pretty wife (left) holds out a buxom child to kiss him. He holds a sickle. A dog sits at his feet. Behind (right), before a blazing fire, a young woman places a sirloin of beef upon a round table, laid for a meal, with a large pitcher beside it. A pestle and mortar and other brass utensils are neatly ranged on the chimney-piece, beside which is a spit. A ham and string of onions hang on the wall. Through an open door (left) are a hen and chickens, two pigs feeding in a stye, and a haystack. The title continues: 'Prosperity & Domestick-Happiness.' [2] A young farmer lies stabbed to the heart by a bayonet, surrounded by his despairing and terrified wife and three children. Behind (right) is a ruined house. In the background (left) French soldiers are driving off sheep and cattle, and a village (right) is in flames. Behind is the sea with ships of war at anchor.

Artist page: 
Century: 
Classification: 
Department: