The best George Cruikshank print is, of course, the one he captioned “A radical reformer … a neck or nothing man!” A vast, anthropomorphic, fire-breathing guillotine, dripping with blood and wearing a liberty cap, lumbers towards Britain’s governing class, which scatters before it. Made in 1819, the image distils anxieties about post-Napoleonic political pollution. Combining Blakean imagination, powerful draughtsmanship and genuine insight into the Channel-crossing forces reshaping the country, it is the peak of a junction between prints and politics unique in British history.
