George Cruikshank and the British Satirical Response to the Hundred Days

Abstract

When Napoleon made his remarkable return from Elba, British caricaturists responded with an outpouring of prints noticeable for their vibrancy. Far from embodying straightforward anti-Napoleonic propaganda, George Cruikshank’s prints exhibit the same mischievous ambiguity that had once defined the work of his hero, James Gillray. Prints such as Cruikshank’s Escape of Buonaparte From Elba provided commentary on Napoleon’s return and the different reactions to it, but they were also part of the process of figuring out how Britons should respond to the Hundred Days and the issues it raised, thus helping to colour the bare events of 1815 with ideological significance.