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The Two Are But One (Les deux ne font qu'un)

late 18th century
Not on view
During the first years of the French Revolution, King Louis XVI was rarely ridiculed in prints. It was only after the night of June 20, 1791 - when he and his family attempted to flee Paris for a Royalist stronghold, where he hoped to begin a counterrevolution - that popular opinion turned more decidedly against him. Louis and Queen Marie-Antoinette then became frequent targets of French caricaturists, who often depicted them in a sort of reverse anthropomorphism, as animals with human heads. Here, the royal couple is portrayed as a two-headed creature that pulls in opposite directions. The king is given the body of a pig and the horns of a cuckold, a reference to his wife's many rumored affairs; the queen, with the body of a hyena, sports a fancy headdress of serpents and ostrich feathers, the latter a pun on her Austrian heritage (autruche and Autriche)

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Two Are But One (Les deux ne font qu'un)
  • Artist: Anonymous, French, 18th century
  • Date: late 18th century
  • Medium: Hand-colored etching
  • Dimensions: sheet: 5 7/8 x 8 3/8 in. (15 x 21.3 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1962
  • Object Number: 62.520.106
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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L'Entré triumphale des Troupes royales a Nouvelle Yorck – Der Einzug der Königlichen Volcker in Neu Yorck [The Triumphal Entry of Royal Troops into New York], Anonymous, French, 18th century French, Hand-colored etching and engraving
L'Entré triumphale des Troupes royales a Nouvelle Yorck – Der Einzug der Königlichen Volcker in Neu Yorck [The Triumphal Entry of Royal Troops into New York]
Engraver Anonymous, French, 18th century
After Franz Xavier Habermann
Publisher Jacques François Chereau
1776–77
Nocturne: Palaces, James McNeill Whistler American, Etching and drypoint; printed in dark brown ink on drum mounted medium weight ivory laid paper.
Nocturne: Palaces
James McNeill Whistler
1879–80
La Destruction de la Statue Royale à Nouvelle Yorck–Die Zerstörung der Königlichen Bild Säule zu Neu Yorck (Destruction of the Royal Statue at New York), Anonymous, French, 18th century French, Hand-colored etching and engraving
La Destruction de la Statue Royale à Nouvelle Yorck–Die Zerstörung der Königlichen Bild Säule zu Neu Yorck (Destruction of the Royal Statue at New York)
Engraver Anonymous, French, 18th century
After Franz Xavier Habermann
Publisher Basset
1776–77
Mountain Valley with a Plateau, Hercules Segers Dutch, Line etching, drypoint, and metal punch printed in blue-green, on a yellow-green ground, colored with brush; second state of two
Mountain Valley with a Plateau
Hercules Segers
ca. 1625–30
La Victoire, from the playing cards (for quartets) "Costumes des Peuples Étrangers", Anonymous, French, 18th century French, Etching and hand coloring (watercolor)
La Victoire, from the playing cards (for quartets) "Costumes des Peuples Étrangers"
Anonymous, French, 18th century
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