DEVERIA, Achille (1800-57):
« On n’entre pas », an insert over another scene, « Fermez donc la porte, Justine! »
Lithograph, no. 10, from La Caricature, 4 November 1830. Beatrice Farwell, The Charged Image, 1989, no. 56.
Fine impressions. Wide margins with foxing, all outside the image. The inserted sheet in good condition. 217 x 170mm.
$500
What we might call peek-a-boo caricatures, with flaps that could be lifted to reveal a truth or a titillating scene, were popular in France in the 1820’s and 30’s. With their invitation to touch, few such prints survived. According to Farwell, “Since this image does not appear in the Bibliothèque nationale Inventaire, the question arises whether it was originally censored, or the impression deposited there was simply lost. The impressions preserved at the Bibliothèque were deposited there under the dépot legal system, after being submitted by the printer to the censorship office.”