Past Op!!!

This is the twentieth and last 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 "Watch Out!!" The print shows Father Time standing before a passageway to "L'avenir" (The Future), which remains hidden behind a curtain. In front of him is a table with a document upon it labeled "Traité de Paix" (Peace Treaty). The seals of the major countries of Europe are attached to the treaty. They include: "F.W." (Frederick William II, King of Prussia), "GRx" (George III, King of England), "France," "C" (Catherine the Great of Russia), and "Fr:Emp" (Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor). On the treaty an hour glass is set whose sands have almost run out.

Past Op!!!

After David Hess

Past Op!!! [1796?]
© Trustees of the British Museum

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 satiric "Explanation" in French.

The Biblical quotations contain a warning and a blessing:

Proverbs, x. 2s. "The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall be shortened."

St. Matthew, v. 9. "Blessed are the peacemakers!"

In light of the final Biblical quotation, and Hess's experience as a soldier, it's not hard to guess the riddle of the image and the accompanying "Explanation."

Le génie du tems garde la porte de l'avenir, dont un voile épais nous derobe la vüe. Qui est le mortel assez hardi, pour oser le penetrer?
Je vois un livre avec cinq sceaux. Un clepsidre, dont le sable est presqu' écoulé. Quel est cet énigme ? Le génie ménace! à qui en veut-il?

And here is my free English translation.

The genius of time keeps the door of the future, whose thick veil hides it from view. Where is a mortal daring enough to penetrate it? I see a book with five seals and an hourglass whose sand is almost run out. What is this riddle? The genius threatens. Who wants to see?

In becoming a vassal state of France, the new Batavian Republic had unfortunately joined its fortunes inextricably with the French, and consented to supporting a French force of 25,000 troops for as long the war continued. In 1796, it must have seemed at least possible that peace could be achieved. And so Hess seems to hope. But with the arrival and military success of Bonaparte later that year, time did, in fact, run out on the prospects for peace, and the future revealed itself as a series of seemingly unending wars for the rest of the century.

Past Op!!!

David Hess
Past Op!!! [1796?]
© Zentralbibliothek Zürich

As usual, Gillray follows Hess's basic design. But he situates the passageway to the future in a large room with heavy stone blocks, with a more extensive stone floor. He adds his usual impressive shading, giving everything a greater solidity and definition and clearly situating the light source on the left. He also makes the face and physique of Father Time stronger and less boyish.

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