Eenige der Representanten van het Volk van Holland

This is the eighteenth plate of a twenty plate series, Hollandia Regenerata, etched by Gillray based on drawings by the Swiss soldier, painter, and caricaturist, David Hess. For more about David Hess, and the political and artistic context of the series satirizing the newly-created and French-supported Batavian Republic, see my Introduction.

The title can be translated as "Some of the Representatives of the People of Holland." It refers to one of the first interim governing bodies of the new Batavian Republic, the Provisional Representatives of the People of Holland (the Province, not the Netherlands as a whole). Hess's opinion of the Representatives may be suggested by the inclusion of a boar and a pair of farting buttocks among caricatures of some of the other members. But all of them are contained within the twigs of a birch rod used to administer corporal punishment.

As with all the plates in the series, the corresponding page to the image contains one or more appropriately ironic Biblical quotations in Dutch and English and a usually satiric "Explanation" in French. Unlike the quotations accompanying other plates in the series which appear to have been sought out for their appropriateness to the image, in this case the Biblical quotation was itself the likely inspiration for the image:

Ezekiel vii. 11. "Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness."

But the impetus for both the print and the Biblical quotation was almost certainly the violence that began to erupt across the provinces in the Spring of 1795. As Simon Schama details in his book, Patriots and Liberators, the transition from the old Dutch Republic or United Provinces to the new Batavian Republic was extremely chaotic. This was partly because the United Provinces had always been a loose confederation with most of the power residing in the separate provinces. So although united in wishing to rid themsleves of the hereditary Stadtholder, William V, the provinces had largely separate visions for the shape of the new Republic. Further complicating matters was the fact that the French delayed recognizing the very revolution they had helped to bring about, negotiating simultanously for most of the Spring of 1795 with the States General of the old United Provinces and the new Provisional Representatives. Impatient with the seemingly endless discussion and delay, the clubs and reading groups in cities like Haarlem, Dordrecht, Leiden and other places, especially Brabant began taking matters into their own hands, and challenging the provisional governing bodies.

As a result, the "Explanation." here returns to the theme of violence, not in the sly and sometimes witty way of previous prints, but as a lamentation for what appears to be happening in the provinces and with the hope that this rod of violence and wickedness, bought by freedom, will prove to be finally salutary for the nation.

O peuple aveugle et endormi! tu avais oublié que jadis tu fus libre, et tu portais paisiblement tes fers. La liberté te corrige de ta lacheté, comme un pere corrige severement les defauts de ses enfans cheris. C'est la liberté qui a formé pour ton éducation cette verge salutaire. Heureux les peuples qu'on mêne ainsi à la gloire et au bonheur.

And here is my free English translation.

O blind and sleepy people! You had forgotten that you used to be free, and you peacefully carried your chains. Freedom corrects you in your cowardice, as a father severely corrects the defects of his beloved children. It is freedom which has formed for your education this salutary rod. Happy are the people who are thus bound together in glory and happiness.

As usual, Gillray follows Hess's basic design. But he creates shadow beneath the birch rod to fill up some of the otherwise empty space. And he also adds slightly more caricature to the faces and expressions of the Representatives.

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Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on Eenige der Representanten van het Volk van Holland.
• Draper Hill, Mr. Gillray The Caricaturist, 1965, p. 73 & note.
• "Batavian Republic," Wikipedia
• "Provisional Representatives of the People of Holland," Wikipedia
• "David Hess (painter)," Wikipedia
• "David Hess," SIKART Dictionary
• David Hess, Hollandia Regenerata (1797), Nawoord by Joost Rosendahl, Uitgeverij Vantilt, 2007
• Simon Schama, Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands 1780 - 1813, London, 1992

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