ANONYMOUS (after) – Aces trais fiers et durs on ne voit point un sage. Mais d’un usurpateur la trop sanglante image. (France), n.d. (1815)

Plate: 129 x 106mm; Sheet: 180 x 117mm; hand-coloured etching

Most famous satirical portrait of Napoleon. Bonaparte’s hat depicts the Prussian eagle, his face is formed from dead bodies, his collar is a blood stream, his uniform is a map with the names of lost battles, the order of the Legion of Honour is a spider web and the epaulette is God’s hand tearing apart the emperor’s uniform. Originally published in December 1813 in Germany under the title: „Triumph des Jahres 1813“, this caricature became the most successful and most often copied caricature of the French Emperor.

cf. Broadley E 121ff; BM Satires 12177, 12202, 122204; Arenenberg 340, 389, 390, 391 (all other versions)

sold/verkauft