Watch Your Rear!!!!, from "Le Miroir"
Eugène Delacroix French
Printer Charles Motte French
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 circulateed 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.
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