Overthrow of the Arts!

Hand-colored etched caricature by Barlow after Collings. 'French soldiers with fixed bayonets and drawn swords have entered an artist's studio. Of five terror-stricken painters one lies beneath a fallen canvas; a soldier tramples on an overturned easel and canvas which he is about to pierce with his bayonet. On the canvas is a Madonna and Child. Quasi-antique busts and statues are on a high shelf. The verses relate that a nest of aristocrats, working in secret, having been denounced in the National Assembly, troops were dispatched headed by Lafayette. They found: 'But meagre sons of paint! This copying some Madonna, that some saint, Originals for Desenfans to puff, Assisted by an English auctioneer, Right Raffaele, Angelo and Titian stuff! -- British Museum Hand-colored etched caricature by Barlow after Collings. 'French soldiers with fixed bayonets and drawn swords have entered an artist's studio. Of five terror-stricken painters one lies beneath a fallen canvas; a soldier tramples on an overturned easel and canvas which he is about to pierce with his bayonet. On the canvas is a Madonna and Child. Quasi-antique busts and statues are on a high shelf. The verses relate that a nest of aristocrats, working in secret, having been denounced in the National Assembly, troops were dispatched headed by Lafayette. They found: 'But meagre sons of paint! This copying some Madonna, that some saint, Originals for Desenfans to puff, Assisted by an English auctioneer, Right Raffaele, Angelo and Titian stuff! -- British Museum Small oblong; margins severely trimmed; creased, yellowed. New York, Walter Schatzki, 1966 Caption: Published as the act directs, by Bentley & Co., March 1, 1791