Gillray, James. “The surrender of Ulm – or – Buonapartè & Genl Mack, coming to a right understanding”. Original antique engraving by James Gillray. From the Bohn edition of 1851, using Gillray’s original copper plates. With later hand colouring.

.”The surrender of Ulm – or – Buonapartè & Genl Mack, coming to a right understanding” was first published on 6 November 1805.

The etching satirises a pivotal historical event from the War of the Third Coalition: the real-world capitulation of Austrian General Karl Mack von Leiberich and his entire surrounded army to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Ulm on 20 October 1805.

James Gillray was Great Britain’s leading caricaturist of the era, famous for his scathing and visually dense critiques of Napoleon. The print was issued by Hannah Humphrey from her shop on St James’s Street in London.

Gillray ironically subtitled the piece as an “intended specimen of French Victories _ I:e_Conquering without Bloodshed !!!”. This mocked how Napoleon successfully forced a massive army to yield through strategic maneuvers rather than a pitched, bloody battle. The title “Coming to a Right Understanding” plays on the idea that General Mack was either bribed, easily manipulated, or entirely incompetent.

In 1805, the British public was terrified of a French invasion. British satirists used cartoons like this to portray Napoleon as a deceitful, power-hungry tyrant and continental generals like Mack as weak or corrupt for failing to stop him. While British propaganda implied a suspicious or cowardly deal, General Mack was actually completely outmaneuvered by Napoleon’s Grande Armée, trapped inside the city of Ulm without supplies, and forced to surrender 25,000 men.

Gillray was one of five children, and the only one to survive to maturity. In 1770 he was apprenticed to Harry Ashby, a London writing in engraver, and five years later W. Humphrey published a few of Gillray’s illustrations including satirical works.

By the time Gillray commenced his career satire was old, but personal caricature was in its infancy. Other exponents in this form of art were soon overshadowed by Gillray’s superior craftsmanship. His figures were full of vitality, titillating and reflective of some political crisis or private scandal. As his popularity increased so did demand by the public to see more of his work. In the rapidly changing politics of the late 18th century he would produce a plate in twenty-four hours.

Although sometimes overlooked his speech bubbles were elaborate and Gillray would spend considerable time composing and redrafting the text.Between 1791 to 1807 his career continued successfully in association with William and Hannah Humphrey. There after Gillray’s health began to suffer. He eventually slipped into madness and died shortly before the Battle of Waterloo on June 1st 1815.

Hannah, who had a close relationship with him nursed Gillray through out his final years and following his death the copper plates then formed part of Hannah’s estate when she died in 1818. The executor’s of Hannah’s estate sold Gillray’s painstakingly worked plates for there second hand copper weight. Hearing of this, the then publisher, Bohn who had previously expressed an interest in buying the plates set about purchasing them from a variety of different sources, eventually acquiring over 500. In 1851 Bohn republished the engravings in a large folio volume, “The Works of James Gillray”