Anonymous [French School]

, , 1814.
a contemporary French satire on the presentation of degrees to the Allied Sovereigns in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford University in June, 1814, depicting a large gathering with the Prince Regent seated in the middle, his chair bearing the three ostrich feathers of the Prince of Wales. Seated to his left is the King of Prussia, Frederick William III, and to his right the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I. Behind the Prussian king stands Lord Grenville, chancellor of the university, and all four of them wear gowns and large academic caps, as do the senior doctors seated in a semicircle just behind. To the right of the Tsar sits his sister, Ekaterina Pavlovna, Duchess of Oldenburg. Behind them, to either side, numerous military officers and a few ladies stand quietly, while in the foreground, below the seated figures, stand a more riotous group comprising a few Russian and Prussian officers with some English laymen in between, and two French officers who turn their backs on the ceremony to face us. The background is divided into three by two classical pilasters. Descending from above the Prince Regent in the centre is a much foreshortened figure of Folly, wearing a foolscap and holding a fool’s bauble in each hand. In the panels to either side are depicted a terrestial and a celestial globe with accompanying trappings. The faces of the three heads of state and the duchess are finely presented in stipple-engraving and uncaricatured. All other faces depicted are more or less grotesquely drawn with the exception of the two Frenchmen. It is titled below the image in English and French, with the symbol and motto of the Order of the Garter in between. Although unsigned, the print is listed in the Bibliographie de France for the 20th August, 1814, by an otherwise unknown Saint-Amant..
315 by 390mm (12½ by 15¼ inches).