print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1987,0516.39
- Title
- Object: Gare derrière !!! (Watch your rear !!!)
- Description
-
Satire on censorship; to the right, an angry uniformed ogre-like figure (a policeman or National Guard) with waxed moustache, his eyes bulging, raises his sabre in his right hand to attack a rocky outcrop to the left; further back two frightened figures peer out from behind a mountain shaped as an éteignoir (candle-snuffer) or pain de sucre - identifying it as a symbol of censorship; published in 'Le Miroir' on 30 May 1822
Lithograph
- Production date
- 1822
- Dimensions
-
Height: 239 millimetres (image)
-
Width: 309 millimetres (image)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This was Delacroix's last satire for 'Le Miroir'. The uniformed figure, according to the account in 'Le Miroir' was called 'De Monts-Coupés' who, on his travels, attacked the mountains blocking the paths. He gave this up after breaking his sabre against a high mountain in America, named 'Peuple-Geant'. The scene shows his great exploit - he cut down the 'Fantôme' [Ghost], a very high mountain near Mississipi, and in the same stroke, smote thirty thousand soldiers who had not fled at the cry: 'gare arrière'. The reference to censorship is said to be indicated by the candle-snuffer shape of the mountain, the name of the central figure - easily read as 'De mots coupés' (cut words) - an emissary of the police authorities who executed the verdict of the censors, and the name of the mountain ('Fantôme'), a reference to the censor's excessive and often imaginary fears. For the analysis of this satire, see Nina Maria Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, 'Eugène Delacroix, Prints, Politics and Satire, 1814-1822', New Haven and London, 1991, pp. 71-72.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Le Miroir
- Acquisition date
- 1987
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1987,0516.39
