‘Radical Quacks Giving A New Constitution to John Bull!’, 1821

Description

Mounted hand coloured etching entitled ‘RADICAL QUACKS giving a New Constitution to John Bull.!”, designed by ‘an Amateur’, etched by George Cruikshank, and published by G. Humphrey in 1821.

One of the most frequently repeated visual metaphors of political and social prints of the early 1800s, is that of the nation, symbolised by the long-suffering John Bull being advised by his doctors. John Bull is a national personification of Great Britain in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works.

He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged man, well-intentioned, frustrated, full of common sense, and entirely of native country stock. Here an ailing John Bull, wearing a cap of “Liberty”, having had both his legs amputated, is bled and treated by two doctors surrounded by medicines and numerous inscriptions mentioning the reform movement.

John Bull sits in a chair, between the two doctors, Burdett (left) and Hobhouse (right). The ‘radical quacks’ repres