John Bull

:For other people and uses of this name, see John Bull (disambiguation).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

John Bull is a national personification of Britain created by Dr. John Arbuthnot in 1712 and popularized first by British print makers and then overseas by illustrators such as American cartoonist Thomas Nast.

Related Topics:
National personification - Britain - John Arbuthnot - 1712 - Thomas Nast

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As a literary figure, John Bull is well-intentioned, frustrated, full of common sense, of poor fashion sense, and entirely of common, country stock. Unlike Uncle Sam later, he is not a figure of authority but rather a yeoman who prefers his small beer and domestic peace, possessed of neither patriarchical power nor heroic defiance. Arbuthnot provided him with a sister named Peg (Scotland), and a traditional adversary in Louis Baboon (the House of Bourbon in France). Peg continued in pictoral art beyond the 18th century, but the other figures associated with the original tableau dropped away.

Related Topics:
Uncle Sam - Yeoman - Scotland - House of Bourbon - France

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bull is usually portrayed as a stout man in a tailcoat with breeches and a Union Jack waistcoat. He also wears a low topper (sometimes called a John Bull topper) on his head and is often accompanied by a bulldog. John Bull has been used in a variety of different ad campaigns over the years, and is a common sight in British editorial cartoons of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Related Topics:
Tailcoat - Breeches - Union Jack - Low topper - Bulldog - Ad campaign - Editorial cartoons

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The cartoon image of stolid stocky conservative and well-meaning John Bull, dressed like an English country squire, sometimes explicitly contrasted with the conventionalized scrawny, French revolutionary sans-culottes Jacobin, was developed from about 1790 by British satirical artists James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson and George Cruikshank.

Related Topics:
Sans-culottes - Jacobin - Satirical - James Gillray - Thomas Rowlandson - George Cruikshank

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

John Bull is sometimes known as the British Lion.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~