PATRIOTY. Republican Sketches. No. 2. The Spectres!!! — Why - Lot 256

PATRIOTY. Republican Sketches. No. 2. The Spectres!!! — Why have you made us suffer so much? Paris, Deforet and César, booksellers and publishers, 64 Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs; Talons Printing House, 19 Marché Saint-Honoré, [1871]. Large black lithograph, signed “Patrioty” in the stone in the lower left corner. Second plate in the “Republican Sketches” series, bearing the number 2 at the top. A scathing attack on Napoleon III, depicted seated, dejected, before the Treaty of Paris. Surrounding him are the “spectres” of the suffering caused by the war: famine, represented by an emaciated woman holding a child; epidemic, symbolized by a sickbed; bombardment; and finally, the battles, whose shroud bears the names Avron, Le Bourget, Montretout, and Châtillon. The composition thus transforms the major traumas of the Siege of Paris into apparitions that have come to hold the former emperor accountable. At his feet, a sheet of paper bearing the words “French Republic” reinforces the political interpretation of the image: the military disaster of the Second Empire is juxtaposed with the Republic that succeeded it. The title, “The Spectres!!! — Why Have You Made Us Suffer So Much,” lends this plate a particularly somber tone. More than a simple caricature of a figure, Patrioty constructs here a true allegory of the human toll of the Siege of Paris and the War of 1870–1871. Black-and-white print; colored versions of this composition also exist, as evidenced by the other photographed copy. A few foxing spots and signs of wear, slight creases; in good overall condition.

Estimation:€80

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