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BESCHREIBUNG:
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References: Daumier Register 132, Delteil 132. Only state. Published by L'Association Mensuelle. Now restored, with numerous (flattened) folds, repaired tears and nicks in the margins mostly where previously folded, evidence of prior foxing verso (now de-acidified); archival mounting with window mat.
A very good impression of this extremely rare, early, and politically important lithograph.
This lithograph was published as part of the special L'Association Mensuelle series, to provide funds to pay for legal expenses incurred by the journal Caricature in its battles with the French government. Many of Daumier's most famous and rarest lithographs were published within this series. The prints are larger than those in the journals, and are apt to have been folded (as is this one) since they were large, and typically hidden by the recipients.
Tre Haut et Tre Puissans is thought to depict the children of Louis-Phillipe, although the commentator Provost felt it illustrated the future leaders of Austria, France and Greece as well as the young Queen Victoria. The indispensable Daumier Register gives us a substantial amount of background on this print, and also provides this translation of the text at the bottom of the print:
TRÈS HAUTS ET TRÈS PUISSANS MOUTARDS ET MOUTARDES LÉGITIMES.
Peuples, battez vous, déchirez vous, égorgez vous, pour ces Augustes personnages, vous leur appartenez imbécilles.
Translation:
VERY HIGH AND MIGHTY LEGITIMATE BRATS.
Peoples, defend yourselves, tear yourselves to pieces, sacrifice yourselves for these royals, you belong to them, imbeciles.
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