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Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C , Case GG, Shelf 202

La Poule

Print
1870-1871 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

'LA POULE'; Lithograph, coloured by hand; Empress Eugénie lies naked on a billiard table, surrounded by (left to right): Prince Napoleon, Louis Veuillot, Bernard de Cassagnac, Emile Ollivier, Joseph Piétri and Napoleon III.
Print from a set of caricatures, broadsheets and illustrations in ten volumes. Each volume is half-bound in red leather, gold tooled and stamped with imperial emblems, title etc.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleLa Poule (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Hand-coloured lithograph on paper
Brief description
Paris Commune print; 'LA POULE'; Lithograph, coloured by hand; Empress Eugénie lies naked on a billiard table, surrounded by; Prince Napoleon, Louis Veuillot, Bernard de Cassagnac, Emile Ollivier, Joseph Piétri and Napoleon III; Anonymous; France; 1870-71.
Physical description
'LA POULE'; Lithograph, coloured by hand; Empress Eugénie lies naked on a billiard table, surrounded by (left to right): Prince Napoleon, Louis Veuillot, Bernard de Cassagnac, Emile Ollivier, Joseph Piétri and Napoleon III.
Print from a set of caricatures, broadsheets and illustrations in ten volumes. Each volume is half-bound in red leather, gold tooled and stamped with imperial emblems, title etc.
Dimensions
  • Height: 25.4cm
  • Width: 33.6cm
Dimensions from: Lambert, Susan. The Franco-Prussian War and The Commune in Caricature 1870-71. catalogue of a collection of prints in the possession of the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971.
Marks and inscriptions
  • LA POULE (Title, lettered above design.)
  • Imp Lemaine & Fils, 61, r. de Clery (Lettered, bottom-right corner, below design.)
  • (Most prints in this set are lettered with the names of artists and printers and have captions)
Gallery label
Anonymous Tales of debauchery and illict relationships emanated from the pleasure loving court of the Second Empire. Napoleon's carnal weaknesses were public knowledge and many of the rumours concerning his succession of mistresses were true. Those relating to the beautiful Eugénie were based on her informal and flirtatious manner. Here, branded as a 'poule' (a ‘hen’, with a secondary sense of ‘tart’) she lies naked on the billiard table, tapping a tambourine symbolic of her love of abandoned rhythmic dancing. The players are from left to right: Prince Napoleon, Louis Veuillot, Bernard de Cassagnac, Emile Ollivier, Joseph Piétri and Napoleon III. In fact the Empress is said to have been frigid and the stories of her adultery with her ministers are false. Lithograph, coloured by hand. E.2236-1962(27/05/1971-10/10/1971)
Object history
Provenance unknown.
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic references
  • Lambert, Susan, The Franco-Prussian War and The Commune in Caricature 1870-71: catalogue of a collection of prints in the possession of the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, V&A, 1971
  • Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1962. London: HMSO, 1964.
Collection
Accession number
E.2236-1962

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Record createdJanuary 28, 2009
Record URL
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