Le baron Alphonse. (Alphonse de Rothschild) No. 45. Original lithograph from the Anti-Dreyfusard series "Musée des Horreurs."
Paris: Imp. Lenepveu, 1900. Handcolored lithograph. 65.2 x 50 cm. Unmounted, marginal tears and creasing with small loss.
Caricature of Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905) as a creature with an eyepatch clawing gold coins from a chest. Alphonse de Rothschild was a member of the prominent Rothschild family of Jewish financiers that became easy targets for anti-semitic outrage during the Dreyfus Affair even though they had little or no direct involvement....
Alphonse de Rothschild, en singe monstrueux, borgne et griffu, contemple un coffre rempli de pièces d'or...
The story of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army is widely known. Falsely accused of treason for selling military secrets to Germany and convicted of treason by a secret military commission, Dreyfus was stripped of his rank and imprisoned on Devils' Island. It was only after the affair had dragged on for a dozen years that Dreyfus was finally cleared of all charges by the court of appeals. French society was deeply divided by the Dreyfus case and hostile rhetoric led to widespread anti-Semitic expression in the popular press. This scarce series of intensely provocative color lithographs was only one example of the virulent reaction to the Dreyfus Affair. The identity of the artist who signed each of the drawings (in the plates) is unknown beyond the pseudonym of V. Lenepveu. It is probable that the series was promulgated by Léon Hayard, the independent publisher who distributed a wide variety of anti-Dreyfus material including posters, pamphlets and even knick-knacks. In addition to provocative images of Alfred Dreyfus and Emile Zola, the journalist who took up Dreyfus' cause and penned the famous missive J'accuse, the remaining caricatures by Lenepveu excoriate a variety of prominent Dreyfusards, Republican statesmen and Jews, including no fewer than eight separate representations of members of the prominent Jewish Rothschild family. The publication of Musée des Horreurs was halted by the police after 51 numbers had been published. Item #16-3772
Price: $1,000.00