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De Nederlandse Leeuw door list en geweld aangevallen (The Dutch Lion Attacked by Cunning and Force)

· 1780

De Nederlandse Leeuw door list en geweld aangevallen (The Dutch Lion Attacked by Cunning and Force)
This Dutch political engraving depicts the Dutch Lion under assault during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. The print uses the allegorical figure of the lion—symbol of the Netherlands—surrounded by hostile forces, rendered through satirical character vignettes in the manner of German *Bilderbogen* picture-sheets. Numbered scenes show various national and military figures in caricatured form. The work descends from the tradition of Hogarth and Gillray: multiple episodes unfold across a single sheet, combining visual narrative with numbered explanatory text. Engraved rather than hand-colored, the print reached a broad Dutch audience during a period of naval and commercial crisis. Its propagandistic purpose—to galvanize national sentiment—illustrates how political caricature shaped public opinion before the modern newspaper.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/