'Louis Veuillot'. Satirical illustration by Faustin Betbeder in which Louis Veuillot is depicted as a sainted monk holding a set of keys. Hand-coloured lithograph, France, 1870-1871.

Satirical print in which Louis Veuillot is depicted as a sainted monk holding a set of keys.
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.

Plate from a series entitled 'Les Hommes D'Église'.

Louis Veuillot (1813-83), an ardent convert to Catholicism, became director of L’Univers, a paper which defended the church. All his writings convey an underlying belief in the salvation of society through Catholicism. Horrified by the caricatures produced after the collapse of the Empire, he wrote to Jules Favre on the subject, mentioning those of Eugénie in particular: ‘L’on vous a signalé ce vomissement de caricatures qui depuis votre avènement n’a cessé de salir la ville. En fait d’art, la République de 1870 n’a pas produit autre chose. . . . Je vois l’image d’une femme qui a régné vingt ans et don’t la reputation h’honneur n’a souffert aucune atteinte. Elle est souillée des injures auxquelles toute femme préférerait la mort.’’

Quoted from J. Lethève, La caricature et la presse sous la I I I e République, Paris, 1961, p. 21.

E.1026-1962