7/25/2019 Holy Images of the People: The Caricatures of Louis Marie Bosredon in 19th Century Paris

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Panel Comic Art Section

Holy Images of the People: The Caricatures of Louis Marie Bosredon in 19th

Century Paris

This paper argues that satirical lithographs in 19thcentury Paris allowed a representation

of the peoples sovereignty to take root in the social and political order.

After the collapse of the July Monarchy in 1848, lithographs begin to irreverently depict

the political realm. Desacralizing monarchic figures was their first purpose. In the early

days of this satirical turn, a socialist worker named Louis Marie Bosredon joined the

revolt. He drew a dozen a caricatures mocking the king. One of them shows Louis

Philippe on his knees. Another monarch appears next to him, probably Ludwig I of

Bavaria. Two insurgents are facing them with a snide look on their faces: a crown is

being trampled on by Marianne wearing a Phrygian bonnet.

In 1848, the French Republic not only gave people the freedom to laugh. It also

consecrated popular sovereignty. Hundreds of drawings and caricatures represented thecommon people (Le Men, 2004; Kaenel, 2004). Bosredon was one of these caricaturists,

laughing at the king and celebrating the person in the street. The analysis of his

production not so much relies on interpretations than on connecting them to their social

and political context (Geipel, 1972; Szabo and Lent, 1994; Hess and Ashbery, 1970;

Horn, 1998).

How did these drawings become political? How laughing changed what was considered

sacred in the exercise of power? The case of Louis Marie Bosredon allows us to

understand how the critic of the representative government was articulated at the time.This logic is not only a matter of the past: a parallel will be made with the birth of comic

strips (Varnum and Gibbons, 2002). Fix images have their own temporality and narrativestyles (Baetens and Ribire, 2001). They are a key component of what constitutes a

political event (Barker, 1993).