Auguste-Victor Lenepveu (1852-19??), designer

No. 44 Le baron James

Musée des Horreurs, series title

Hand-colored lithograph

Paris

Gerant Lenepveu

circa 1899-1900

Approx. 19 3/8 x 25 1/4 in., mounted to 21 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. 

A vicious caricature of Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (1792-1868) designed by virulent antisemite Auguste-Victor Lenepveu in the rise of discrimination triggered by the Dreyfus Affair. In an interview in Le Libre Parole, he identifies himself as an "Algerian and antisemite" (15 October 1899). He published the series Musée des Horreurs that consisted of monstrous caricatures of prominent Jews, especially those engaged in exonerating Alfred Dreyfus. In contrast, he also published a series titled Musée des Patriotes glorifying those working to undermine Dreyfus. 

Although the Rothschild family had little to no involvement in the Dreyfus Affair, they were perennial targets of antisemites. Here, Baron Rothschild is depicted as a dog hoarding piles of money.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer wrongfully convicted of treason and was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island - the French penal colony in French Guiana. A political movement to acquit Dreyfus was led notably by Émile Zola and other prominent "Dreyfusards." Opponents abounded, including Édouard Drumont, publisher of the antisemitic newspaper La Libre Parole. This stick may have indeed been the implement of one of the "Anti-Dreyfusards." The Affair remains one of the most notable examples of antisemitism as the cause of a miscarriage of justice. 

[World War II, WWII,  FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adolf Hitler, Allied, Axis, George S. Patton, Air Force] [Anti-semitism] [Propaganda, Posters]