The Hero of the Nile (caricature)

The Hero of the Nile (caricature). In contrast to other unquestioningly adulatory prints of Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile, Gillray here sardonically points to the very large material rewards heaped upon Nelson as a result. Burlesquing the genre of heroic portraiture, he presents Nelson in solitary full-length, on deck and enveloped in smoke. Gillray draws attention to the diamond chelengk in Nelson’s hat, presented to him by the Sultan of Turkey, and in the adapted coat of arms below the main image satirizes his recent baronetcy.

In November Nelson was created Baron Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe and was awarded a pension of £2000 a year. Gillray substitutes for the correct arms on the original shield a bulging purse and scroll inscribed ‘£2000 pr Ann’. Placed alongside Nelson’s motto ‘Palmam qui meruit ferat’ (Let he who has earned it bear the Palm), Gillray undermines the motto’s meaning, to question whether such a large material reward really is merited.

Object Details

ID: PAF3888
Collection: Fine art
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Gillray, James; Humphrey, H.
Date made: Published 1 December 1798
Exhibition: Broadsides! Caricature and the Navy 1775–1815
People: Nelson, Horatio
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Caird Fund.
Measurements: Primary support: 341 mm x 226 mm; Mount: 405 mm x 550 mm
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