Purge at Orange, 1787

This hand-colored etching depicts a savage political allegory of Dutch internal conflict. A lion—symbol of the Dutch republic—is mounted by a crowned figure in pink silk while a large bird overhead drops gold coins. The lion holds weapons and arrows; scattered on the ground are a cannon, hat, and purse. The composition adapts the tradition of Northern European political prints, where animal symbolism and grotesque human figures conveyed partisan messages to a broad public. This print responds to the Orangist purges of 1787, when supporters of the House of Orange violently expelled their political opponents. Such graphic satires were the direct ancestors of 19th-century caricature by Rowlandson, Gillray, and later comic printmaking, using exaggeration, allegory, and brutal imagery to make political conflict legible to common viewers.