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Le Soleil

Print
1871 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Le Petit, Alfred (caricaturist)
Coulboeuf (printer)
Place of origin
Paris (printed)

Print in which Leon Gambetta, with his spherical head surrounded by sunflower petals, strides over a small town on stilts, carrying his 'Depéches' and 'Proclamations etc'. 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
Caricatures & Cartoons
Prints
Object type
Print
Titles
  • Le Soleil (assigned by artist)
  • Fleurs, Fruits & Légumes Du Jour (series title)
Materials and techniques
Hand-coloured lithograph on paper
Paper
Lithography
Hand-Colouring
Brief description
'Le Soleil'. Satirical illustration by Alfred le Petit in which Leon Gambetta, with his spherical head surrounded by sunflower petals, strides over a small town on stilts. Hand-coloured lithograph, France, 1871.
Physical description
Print in which Leon Gambetta, with his spherical head surrounded by sunflower petals, strides over a small town on stilts, carrying his 'Depéches' and 'Proclamations etc'. 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: 24.7cm
  • Width: 13.6cm
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
  • 'LE SOLEIL' (Title, lettered above design)
  • 'GAMBETTA . / Ce Tribun, la terreur des princes, / Depuis le Nord jusqu'au Midi, / Sut réchauffer dans les Provinces, / Le patriotisme engourdi' (Lettered below design)
  • 'Alfred Le Petit Paris 12 Janv. 1871' (Signed and dated, bottom-right of design)
  • 'Au Bureau de L' ECLIPSE, I6, Rue du Croissant, PARIS / Imp. Coulboeuf, Paris' (Lettered running below design)
  • '2' (Numbered)
Historical context
Leon Gambetta, Minister of the Interior, had an energy and intense commitment which compensated for his weak physique. On 7 October 1871, he ballooned out of Paris to take over from Crémieux at Tours.

In this caricature he strides over the country, covering almost impossible distances, on stilts, carrying his Depéches and Proclamations etc . . . In the country districts he injected the apathetic inhabitants with a new will to win the war. No sooner was one army beaten by the Germans than Gambetta had assembled another.
Subjects depicted
Man
Stilts
Town
Townscapes (Representations)
Dog
Gambetta, Leon
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: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971.
  • Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1962. London: HMSO, 1964.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.1607-1962

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Record createdFebruary 4, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O186324/le-soleil-print-le-petit-alfred/
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