Rowlandson (Thomas)
Philosophy Run Mad or a Stupendous Monument of Human Wisdom,
1792.
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a wild-haired sans culotte, representing the French republic, sits on a throne teetering on a pile of broken pillars marked Humanity, Social Happiness, Religion and other subjects, surrounded by grotesque and violent allegories of Liberty, Equality, Peace and Plenty, a satire on the Girondins, or the Girondist faction of the Republican movement in France, keen to depose the king and create a republic, finding an ally in Thomas Paine, and the title echoing Charles James Fox’s praise for the French constitution they helped shape, but who were against allowing the revolution to spiral beyond that aim, eventually falling victim to the purge known as the Reign of Terror in mid-1793,
original hand-coloured etching, 270 x 375 mm. ( 10 5/8 x 14 3/4 in), slight marginal browning, [BM Satires 8150],
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