Dédié à WallS : Résurrection de la Censure

Lithograph, 1832, from La Caricature, 251 x 265 mm., B. N. Inv. N.D. (apparently lacking in the collection). Fine impression on white wove paper with good margins; some soft creases and a faint stain in the left margin. This weird image, playing off the statement of the Resurrection in St. Luke, is actually a recognizable portrait of D’Argout, the chief government censor, arising from the dead after three days, with his censor’s shears clasped in his arms. The sleepy figures surrounding this miracle (decreed by King Louis-Philippe) represent the newspapers, only dimly aware of their forthcoming difficulties. Freedom of the press versus government censorship was a major problem during the reign of Louis-Philippe but it produced some of the most memorable caricatural images. This is one of the great ones. Grandville was assisted in this print, as he often was, by Eugène Forest.

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