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Watch Your Rear!!!!, from "Le Miroir"

Printer Charles Motte French
1822
Not on view
Delacroix's political satire takes aim at censorship of the French press during the 1820s. In the explanatory text that accompanied the print in the leftist newspaper Le Miroir, the wild-eyed policeman wielding a sword is called De Monts-coupés (Of Cut Mountains), a name closely evoking the phrase de mots coupés (of cut words).Executing the verdicts of the censors, he furiously raises his sword at a mountain that is labeled Fantôme (Ghost) in a reference to the censors' often imaginary fears of objectionable material. Members of the censorship committees, which were disbanded in 1822 as part of even more restrictive press laws, hide behind the mountain. Delacroix regularly drew inspiration from the earlier British satires that circulated in France. In this case, he looked to a 1799 print by Isaac Cruikshank called General Swallow Destroying th French Army for the main figure.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Watch Your Rear!!!!, from "Le Miroir"
  • Series/Portfolio: Le Miroir
  • Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)
  • Printer: Charles Motte (French, 1784–1836)
  • Date: 1822
  • Medium: Lithograph; only state
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 12 5/16 x 9 7/8 in. (31.2 x 25.1 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1958
  • Object Number: 58.512.12
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Studies of Horses, Eugène Delacroix French, Graphite and traces of brown ink on laid paper
Studies of Horses
Eugène Delacroix
A Bearded Man, Standing, and a Classical Head, Eugène Delacroix French, Pen and brown ink on tracing paper (mounted on heavy wove paper)
A Bearded Man, Standing, and a Classical Head
Eugène Delacroix
1815–63
Les Français peints par eux-mêmes encyclopédie morale du dix-neuvième siècle. Paris, L. Curmer, 1840-1842.
Eugène Delacroix
19th century
La Pietà, Eugène Delacroix French, Etching on chine collé; second state of two
La Pietà
Multiple artists/makers
1852
Studies of a Goat, Eugène Delacroix French, Graphite on wove paper
Studies of a Goat
Eugène Delacroix
1798–1863

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