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O the Roast Beef of Old England ('The Gate of Calais')

Image credit: Tate

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Notes

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This painting is Hogarth's comment on his second visit to France in the summer of 1748, when he was arrested as a spy while sketching the arms of England on the old city gate at Calais. The contemporary diarist George Vertue records in August 1748 that Hogarth and Francis Hayman were 'attempting to draw some Views of Fortifications &c. were surprized & clapt into the Bastile. from whence they were soon glad to return to England' ('Vertue Note Books III', Walpole Society, vol.22, Oxford 1934, p.142). Hogarth took his revenge with this painting. The title was taken from a popular tune of the day, which extolled roast beef as the symbol of Britain's wealth and power. Numerous xenophobic references indicate Hogarth's low opinion of the French.

Tate Britain

London

Title

O the Roast Beef of Old England ('The Gate of Calais')

Date

1748

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 78.8 x W 94.5 cm

Accession number

N01464

Acquisition method

Presented by the Duke of Westminster 1895

Work type

Painting

Tate Britain

Millbank, London, Greater London SW1P 4RG England

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