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An illustration for the Gilbert and Sullivan play Princess Ida, completed by William Russell Flint (1880–1969) for the 1909 printing of Savoy Operas, a compilation of four Gilbert and Sullivan works. Flint began illustrating at age 14, working as an apprentice lithographer while studying at the Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh. After a time as a medical illustrator, Flint found work with The Illustrated London News. He produced several literary illustrations, including for the Savoy Operas and a 1912 edition of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
This illustration is from Act III: Princess Ida has found herself in a literal battle between the sexes, but her women, although theoretically trained, have never been asked to act in practice in any of the more brutal arts. Here, she questions her fusiliers, who have left their rifles in the armoury lest "in the heat and turmoil of the fight, they might go off".
Illustration: William Russell Flint; restoration: Adam Cuerden