(why) are these French caricatures funny?

December 11, 2005 1:47 AM

Third Republic French caricature: I'm trying to figure out four lithographs by André Gill.

Here's what I do know about them -- and what I'd like to know (note that translating the French is not particularly useful to me as I do speak French):

Poisson d'avril: April 1, 1872: I'm familiar with the April Fool's Day fish tradition; I'm stuck on what the "bait" is and who the fish is a caricature of.  The glasses make me think of Adolphe Thiers, but I'm not sure why that would make sense.  Are the "bait" objects references to potential monarchs?

La Fusion: July 14, 1872: The date seems significant, except that I can't relate it to the image.  The caricatures might be of Napoleon III and Bismarck, with an unknown on the left?  Why are they all melting? (The caption below the image, not legible in the .jpg, reads: "O Sires fondus, Sires coulés!")

Les Quatres Vents: Sept 7, 1873: The only caricature I recognize is Gambetta, at the top?  What do the initials in place of nord/sud/est/ouest stand for?

Nouveau Paon: Aug 21, 1870: The Franco-Prussian war, a major contributor to the collapse of Napoleon III’s empire, began in 1870. The title of this caricature is “New Peacock,” and it depicts Otto Bismarck, the prime minister of Prussia (recognizable by his spiked helmet and enormous mustache), with peacock feathers protruding from his rear. Breveté s. g. d. g., the phrase following the title, is a French patent mark often translated as, “patent pending.” The abbreviated letters actually stand for sans garanti du gouvernement, or “without the guarantee of the government.” But why the peacock feathers (are they something more than a signifier of vanity?)?

posted by obliquicity to media & arts (11 comments total)

Re: La Fusion, an uninformed guess. Here's a bit from the ever-reliable random webpage..
This could fit the moustachioed blokes, but I have no idea who the Oriental stereotype on the left is.

" Dreikaiserbund 1872

Also known as the League of the Three Emperors (1872)

Bismarck's aim for forming this League was to isolate France by making friends with Austria and Russia. The partners were Kaiser William I of Germany, Czar Alexander II of Russia and Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. These three rulers agreed: (i) to maintain the existing territorial arrangements in Europe; (ii) to resist the spread of revolutionary (e.g. socialist) movements; and (iii) to consult one another if any international difficulties arose.

France was being diplomatically isolated. But the underlying weakness of this personal understanding between the three emperors was the rivalry between Austria and Russia over the Balkan Peninsula. Both sought to dominate the Balkans. It was difficult for Bismarck to keep them in the same camp."

( I was so going to heckle you to do your own homework. But I guess, um, you're a bit beyond that.)
posted by metaculpa at 2:16 AM on December 11, 2005

Poisson d'avril: the glasses indeed look like Thiers' (and perhaps the fish itself?). The pear used to be the usual caricature of King Louis-Philippe of whom Thiers had been a strong supporter in the past. The claws could be the symbol of the German eagle.

I have no idea about the sort of sandwich on the left and about the meaning of the whole picture. Perhaps these baits represent the various source of inspiration for the Thiers-fish.

Fusion: there are at least two puns there : fusion = merging or melting ; cire = wax and sire = king

Les quatre vents : the character on the right looks like Napoleon III, hence perhaps the N. Perhaps the R of Gambetta stands for Republic. The two other characters could be other candidates : C could stand for the Comte de Chambord, the character with the old-fashioned wig being his grandfather and former king Charles X.

Peacock: "fier comme un paon" (proud as a peacock) or "se pavaner" ("walking like a peacock") are common French expressions so I don't think there's more to it, since this is exactly was Bismarck does in the picture.
posted by elgilito at 7:03 AM on December 11, 2005

Yeah, the pear is definitely Louis-Philippe. I'm guessing the R is for [Union] républicaine; there's a nice summary of the politics of the time here. Interesting question; I hope more answers turn up!
posted by languagehat at 7:43 AM on December 11, 2005

metaculpa: as far as I can tell, the Dreikaiserbund didn't meet for the first time until September of 1872. It's probably too much to hope that Gill had a premonition...

elgilito: cire/sires is great -- I can't believe I just read a dissertation chapter on Mme Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors and still missed that!

languagehat: I also hope answers keep coming -- my soft deadline for figuring these out is tomorrow (hard deadline is end of the week).

I have this question out to Reputable Academics as well, but as one of them (well, an academic anyway) I'm not hopeful about getting answers before said deadline. Especially at this (grading) time of year.

For those in the Bay Area (metaculpa and maybe some lurkers, it seems), I'm working on this.

Yeah, I guess that's technically a self-link, sorry. Come see the show anyway :)
posted by obliquicity at 10:54 AM on December 11, 2005

Self-links in comments are fine. Wish I could see the show!
posted by languagehat at 11:49 AM on December 11, 2005

About the fusion, this rare books site decodes the image as follows: "the fusion was an agreement between the Legitimists and the Orleanists that said that, if the monarchy was reinstituted, the Comte de Chambord (Henri V) would make the Comte de Paris his successor."
The character on the right could be the Comte de Paris. Logically the character on the left should be the Comte de Chambord, but he wore a beard unlike the caricature.
posted by elgilito at 1:28 PM on December 11, 2005

I ran across that use of the term "fusion" (from one of the previous links in this thread, actually), but the agreement between the Orleanists and the Legitimists wasn't reached until 1873. Perhaps evidence is mounting for the premonition argument?
posted by obliquicity at 1:58 PM on December 11, 2005

There's a book from 1913 called "La fusion monarchique 1848-1873" and a first attempt had failed in the late 1840s, so we can guess that merging the two royal lines was an ongoing, well-discussed project. However, since the picture also shows Napoleon III the "fusion" in the picture could be some sort of joke about merging not only the royal lines but also the imperial one. Just guessing, IANAH.
posted by elgilito at 2:49 PM on December 11, 2005

Hey, I am a[n art] historian, and I'm still pretty much just guessing here. Please don't take my devil's advocacy for lack of appreciation of your continued thought and digging.

As you can see from my OP, I initially thought that the date of La Fusion (14 juillet) was significant -- and that seemed to make very tidy sense with your proposed explanation for the image -- but now I see that it wasn't even proposed as a national holiday until 1880. Would people have taken note of the date anyway?
posted by obliquicity at 3:11 PM on December 11, 2005

I just found this caricature. The characters on the left and right are the two royalist candidates, le Comte de Chambord (without a beard!) and the Duc d'Aumale, both sporting facial hair similar to the left and right characters in Gill's caricature.
posted by elgilito at 3:50 PM on December 11, 2005

Hmm -- I might even go as far as to say that all three main figures are the same in both images.
posted by obliquicity at 4:50 PM on December 11, 2005