French Habits: Membre du Directoire Exécutif

This is the fourth in a series of twelve plates in which Gillray portrays members of the Whig opposition wearing the new ceremonial robes designed by Jacques-Louis David for the prominent public officials of the French Directorate. In this print, Gillray gives the role of member of the Executive Directory to Francis Russell, the Duke of Bedford.

As defined in the English version of the French specification, the Executive Directory "is the depository of national power. It is the first of the constitutive authorities, and watches over all of them. . . . [The members' power] consists in seeing the laws executed and obeying themselves the will of the people, expressed by the constitution," There were five executive directors, nominated and selected by Council of the Five Hundred and the Council of the Ancients. And they were expected to work closely with the Ministers.

The fabulously wealthy Duke of Bedford had been closely aligned with Fox and the Whigs at least since 1795, becoming, in effect, Fox's voice in the House of Lords. Bedford first appeared in Gillray's work in The Republican Rattle-Snake Fascinating the Bedford-Squirrel, which suggested that the young Duke had been mesmerized by the persuasions of the elder Fox. A year later, Bedford again appeared linked to the Whig leader in The Generae of Patriotism. . . where he is shown using his overflowing money bags to sow the seeds of revolution under the watchful sun of Fox.

The irony of a wealthy and privileged Lord with his stable of racehorses espousing radical principles was not lost on Gillray. And that may explain why Bedford is shown in the "Grand Costume" rather than the ordinary one of a Directory Member. It certainly explains why the hilt of his sword is a jockey's cap, and why the Bedford ducal motto is only partly obscured by the drapery of Égalité on the column behind him. As Edmund Burke pointed out in his Letter to a Noble Lord (1796), Bedford's leveling efforts (except in his well-known draining of the fens on his property known as the Bedford levels) could not hide the fact that he was a child of privilege, indeed a "leviathan among all the creatures of the Crown."

The elaborate ceremonial dress (including the blue toga, white sash, red cloak, white stockings, blue tasseled shoes) derive from the French specification of David's designs. The general pose, and background stool are also present in the same source. But I was unable to obtain the English illustration for this administrative position, so there may be other details that derive from the English pamphlet.

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on French Habits: Membre du Directoire Exécutif.
• "Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford," Wikipedia
• Collection des nouveaux costumes des autorités constituées, civils et militaires
• Dresses of the Representatives of the People. . .
• Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #188
• Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times pp. 239-240.

NEXT: French Habits 5

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