Austrian bugaboo funking the French army

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James Gillray
1756-1815
Austrian bugaboo funking the French army
etching, hand colored
image: 244 x 348 mm; plate: 244 x 348 mm; sheet: 250 x 357 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2781
Published: 
[London] : Pubd. May 12th 1792 by H. Humphrey, No. 18 Old Bond Street, [1792]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Printmaker from BM Satires.
At upper left, within image: '"While loyal honour warm'd a Fr'enchmans breast, " The field of Battle was a glorious test; "Nobly ambitious for his King to fight, "To die or conquer was a Soldiers Right. "A strange reverse the Democrats display, "And prove the "Right of Man" - to run away -.
A satire on the French flight from Tournai in 1792.

Summary: 

Print shows a monster, representing Austria, putting to flight a disorderly rabble of French soldiers. He has enormous legs which are joined to his shoulders, probably to indicate that he is 'nobody'; his head consists of a large military cap, decorated with the Habsburg eagle, from which issue enormous moustaches and two puffs of smoke; he smokes a large curved metal pipe, and from his supposed mouth issues a blast of smoke directed against the fleeing French.

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