Caricatures of Louis-Philippe
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The French king Louis Philippe I was caricatured many times during his reign, most famously in The Pears by Charles Philipon.
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By Charles Philipon
On February 26, 1831 Charles Philipon publishes a caricature of Louis-Philippe bearing the title Mousse de juillet. Better known as Les Bulles de savon, it shows the king carelessly blowing bubbles on which are displayed unfulfilled promises: freedom of the press, popular elections, mayors elected by the people.
Prosecuted for insulting the king (for "outrage à la personne du roi" under the Law of November 29, 1830), Philipon is acquitted.
He adds insult to injury a few months later with another lithograph, known as Le Replâtrage (The Replastering), published in La Caricature of June 30, 1831, where the king is symbolically represented as a mason erasing the traces of the July Revolution. He returned for trial in the Cour d'assises.
The "coup de théâtre" occurs at the "Le Replâtrage" hearing of 14 November 1831 when facing the judges, Philipon, sure to be condemned, plays his trump card and demonstrates in a clever argument that "tout peut ressembler au roi" ("everything can resemble the king"), and that he can not be held responsible for this resemblance. He illustrates his defense by the metamorphosis of the king's portrait in a pear.
At the conclusion of his trial before the Assize Court, Philipon was convicted of "insulting the person of the king." Arrested on 12 January 1832, he was to serve six months in prison and pay a fine of 2,000 francs, to which were added seven months resulting from other convictions. He was transferred to Sainte-Pelagie prison and later to the maison de santé of Philippe Pinel, where the regime was more favorable.
By Daumier
- Gargantua (Daumier)
- Une énorme poire pendue par les hommes du peuple
- Pot de vin, arrestations arbitraires, mitraillades, transnoninades, elle couvre tout de son manteau
More caricatures
- La naissance du Juste-Milieu by Grandville
- M.Mahieux poiricide by Traviès
- La poire et ses pépins by Bouquet
- Projet du monument expia-poire à élever sur la place de la Révolution, précisément à la place où fut guillotiné Louis XVI by Philipon
See also
- French caricature
- French censorship
- Lithographs of Louis-Philippe of France
- Lithographs of Louis-Philippe of France by Honoré Daumier
