Lettered inside image, upper center: "British Oak."; lower left: "Pubd. Octr. 6th, 1798. by H. Humphrey. 27 St. James's Street"; lower right: "Js. Gy. inv & fect"; lettered below image, lower center: "Extirpation of the Plagues of Egypt; Destruction of Revolutionary Crocodiles; or The British Hero Cleansing ye Mouth of ye Nile."
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.993
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
caricature
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Pearls to Pyramids: British Visual Culture and the Levant, 1600–1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-02-07 - 2008-04-28)
Publications:
David Blayney Brown, Turner's Modern World, Tate Publishing, London, 2020, p. 56, no. 29, NJ18.T85 A12 2020a Oversize (YCBA)Jason Edwards, The British School of Sculpture , c. 1760-1832, New York, 2017, p. 168, fig. 9.3, NB466 B75 2017 (YCBA)Pearls to pyramids : British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1830 [wall labels], Yale Center for British Art, 2008, p. 49, V 2576 (YCBA)Pearls to pyramids : British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2008, pp. 12, 17, V1880
Gallery Label:
The Battle of the Nile increased Nelson's stature as a naval hero, giving rise to semi-celebratory satires such as this, that in turn helped to fuel the Egyptomania of the period. In this allegorical depiction of the Battle of the Nile, Nelson wields a club of British oak-the preferred construction material for the ships of the Royal Navy-to "cleanse the Mouth of the Nile" of tri-color French crocodiles. The crocodile in the distance with flames shooting out of its mouth represents L'Orient, the French flagship, which exploded during the battle. Gallery label for Pearls to pyramids: British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1820 (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-02-07 - 2008-04-28)