The Gate of Calais [SEP] creator
The Gate of Calais
The Gate of Calais or O, the Roast Beef of Old England is a 1748 painting by William Hogarth, reproduced as a print from an engraving the next year. Hogarth produced the painting directly after his return from France, where he had been arrested as a spy while sketching in Calais. The scene depicts a side of beef being transported from the harbour to an English tavern in the port, while a group of undernourished, ragged French soldiers and a fat friar look on hungrily. Hogarth painted
The March to Finchley", which he painted in 1749/50, provides a companion theme to "The Gate of Calais": it depicts a fictional gathering of robust English guardsman who are to march north to defend London against the invasion of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobites in 1745. Further anti-French sentiment is apparent in his two "Invasion" engravings, published in 1756, and in "Beer Street", where Rev. James Townley's accompanying verses stress the superiority of the English. "The Gate of Calais" secondary