The Plumb-pudding in Danger

James Gillray's The Plumb-pudding in Danger (1805) is frequently cited as one of the most famous political cartoons ever made. The etching shows two figures carving up a globe-shaped plum pudding: British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and the French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, each slicing off an enormous portion of the world for himself. Pitt, gaunt and tall, claims the oceans with his fork and knife, while a diminutive, sword-wielding Napoleon carves out continental Europe. The subtitle wryly frames the pair as "state epicures taking un petit souper"—little suppers—as they greedily divide the planet between them. Created during the Napoleonic Wars, the image brilliantly distills the global power struggle between Britain and France into a single dinner-table gag, capturing both leaders' territorial appetites with elegant economy. Gillray, the preeminent caricaturist of Georgian England, was a master of this compression, turning grand geopolitics into biting comedy. The cartoon's composition and idea have proved endlessly durable, imitated and referenced by later artists whenever powerful rivals are shown dividing up the spoils. It stands as a defining example of how caricature can render statecraft absurd—and unforgettable.