Francis Henry De La Motte. Etching by James Smith, 1781.

François Henri de La Motte, a French citizen, executed in 1781 for high treason: he had been found guilty of sending secret intelligence from England to France about the disposition of the British fleet during the American War of Independence. Hanged and tortured at Tyburn before a large crowd of spectators on 27 July 1781. "Bust portrait (not caricature) in profile to the right of the French spy de la Motte. His hair is in a short pigtail queue, he wears a plain coat and ruffled shirt. The portrait is in an oval which is tied by a ribbon (on which the title is engraved) to a nail. The oval is surrounded by foliage and by objects representing and symbolizing the sentence for high treason: a knife and broken column (left), an axe, a rope, and a fire (right)"--British Museum catalogue. The British Museum catalogue does not explain why it regards this portrait as a "satire"