Peace and Plenty or Good News for John Bull!!! 1814

Curator: “Peace and Plenty, or Good News for John Bull!!!” is a hand-colored etching by George Cruikshank, created in 1814. You can currently find it on display here at The Met. Editor: What strikes me immediately is the sense of overindulgence—like a visual feast gone slightly manic. Curator: It's a caricature, and those often amplify certain features to make a point. Consider the title; it seems straightforward, but what do you make of it given the imagery? Editor: Well, the 'John Bull' figure – stout, flushed with wine – is clearly relishing this… victory banquet? But there’s a tension between abundance and maybe, gluttony. Curator: The setting also seems significant. Note the juxtaposition of the outdoor scene with the opulent indoor feasting. One could argue this illustrates the commoners toiling away so that nobility may live well, but the caricature softens what may be a complex class tension. What would you suggest about those characters climbing down the ladder to the table from the clouds? Editor: Ah, yes – they look like a sentient flagon of ale, bread and a wine glass turned to the viewers direction: all heading towards John Bull's banquet. Curator: Right! Notice the visual cues? It is all meticulously encoded in this caricature. Food as symbolic capital, accessible by climbing through layers. Cruikshank does well with what at first seems just "overindulgence". Editor: Absolutely. What at first glance seems chaotic is actually carefully composed and charged. It invites me to ask, how many centuries can such satire remain resonant? Curator: A lot. And as an Iconographer, the power of symbols constantly amazes me, still effective even as the original context fades away. Editor: Leaving us to ponder just how much our symbols shape, and perhaps, satirize us.