POLITICAL IMAGES AND CRITICISM OF THE JULY MONARCHY

Eric BeckmanAnoka HS (MN)

Public opinion and mass culture undermined the July Monarchy as dissatisfaction with the regime was fueled by images that were sharply critical of Louis-Philippe and his government.

Originally viewed by many as liberal, the July Monarchy came to be increasingly ridiculed and criticized as corrupt, brutal, and repressive.

The July Monarchy collapsed in February of 1848, because of a lack of support combined with outright opposition.

Criticism of Louis-Philippe in French publications was part of a burgeoning mass culture.

As more French men and women read and viewed political caricatures the idea of the public as a force in politics, which was visible during the French Revolution, grew.

The July Revolution, 1830

Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People

Marianne, French personification of liberty.

Revolutionary Tricolor

Some of these people do not belong.

The July Monarchy

King Louis-Philippe, formerly Duke of Orleans

King of the French Constitutional

Monarch

The Bourgeois King

Louis-Philippe aka: “the bourgeois king” and “the citizen king”

Note the bourgeoisie present at this royal event

Popular Press and Criticism of Louis-Philippe

Growing literacy in France 1830: 50% of men and 40% of

women

1848: 66% of men and 50% of women

New technology of lithography made the reproduction of images much easier. Political cartoons and caricatures became important aspects of French political discourse.

Public opinion was an increasingly salient aspect of politics, and the public was increasingly influenced by mass media.

Mocking the Bourgeois Court

Ironically entitled “Reigne de l’egalitie” (Reign of Equality)

Bourgeois courtiers are announced at a court function. “Mrs. Potasse, lady of the bedchamber and Mr. Potasse, gentleman of the [king’s] chamber.”

Published in La Cariacature, 19 July 1832.

Corruption of Louis-Philippe

Honoré Daumier, Gargantua (1831). The throne as royal toilet.

Nepotism

"A Poor Father of a Family Who Has an Income of Only a Few Millions.”

Louis-Phillipe’s family and friends often benefitted from government jobs or government projects

Artist unknown, lithograph by Becquet in Le charivari, November 10, 1833

Insurrections against the July Monarchy

Immortalized in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables

“The barricade of Saint Antoine was monstrous; it was three stories high and seven hundred feet long.... It was the collaboration of the pavement, the pebble, the timber, the iron bar, the chip, the broken square, the stripped chair, the cabbage stump, the scrap, the rag.... Its crest was thorny with muskets, with swords, with clubs, with axes, with pikes, and with bayonets; a huge red flag fluttered in the wind; there were heard cries of command, songs of attack, the roll of the drum, the sobs of women, and the dark wild laughter of the starving. ... The spirit of revolution covered ... that summit whereupon growled this voice of the people which is like the voice of God; a strange majesty emanated from that titanic hodful* of refuse. It was a garbage heap and it was Sinai.”

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables *hod-a trough used for carrying bricks or mortar

Repression

Honoré Daumier, Rue Transnonian (July 1834). French troops massacred eleven people in an apartment building located near a street barricade in 1834 uprisings.

Ridicule “ Hercules the Conquerer.

Antique Statue. Found in the ruins of city once rich, flourishing, and populous. The demi-god is dressed in a lion skin. He seems to be resting after one of his difficult labors.”--C.J. Travies.

The culotte-clad Hercules is identifiable as Louis-Philippe by the top hat and umbrella, with which the King almost always appeared. These accessories were identified with the bourgeoisie.

Bomb and the smoldering city may refer to violence in Lyon.

La Cariacature, May 1, 1834.

Louis-Philippe as a Pear

Drawing from the sedition trial of Charles Philipon.

The pear became the universal and ubiquitous symbol of Louis-Philippe, appearing in published caricatures and in wide-spread graffiti.

The French word for pear, poire, is slang for simpleton or fat head.

Louis-Philippe’s face and body were somewhat pear shaped.

Regicide as Jam Making

Pictures from 1832 issues of La Caricature

Louis-Philippe versus republicanism

• The king playing chess with liberty (Marianne)

Fall of the July Monarchy

Checkmated by liberty, Louis-Philippe abdicated and fled to Britain in February of 1848