The Leader of the Parisian Blood Red Republic or the Infernal Fiend

George Cruikshank

The Leader of the Parisian Blood Red Republic or the Infernal Fiend

London, June 1871.

Etching

Original hand colouring

375 x 280 mm

Trimmed close to image.

£380

A rare George Cruikshank satire.

A demonic French Republican, with a bestial horned head and dressed in a tunic and a fool’s cap with bells, bottles of brandy and petroleum on his belt, brandishing a bloody dagger in his right hand and in the left, a flagpole tipped with a skull wearing a cap of liberty, the banner reading “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity! Atheism or A Disbelief in a God!!! Seizure of All Property and Death to all who oppose the Red Republic”, the revolutionary shouting “Blasphemy, Ignorance, Foolery, Ignorance, Folly, Blasphemy” out of his fanged mouth, trampling the bodies of citizens under his spiked hooves, the burning buildings of Paris beyond and much obscured by smoke, an arch above lettered “An Awful Lesson to the World for All Time to Come!”.

Etched below the main title ;

“Fifty Thousand Slaughtered dead bodies of Men, Women & Children, lying in Paris at the end of May 1871 & part of the City destroyed by Fire!!!” “Designed, Etched &Pub.d by George Cruikshank June 1871 and sold by W Tweedie Strand, J Paul King St Covent Garden & J. Harvey St James St Pall Mall.” and with a text: “The Leader of the Parisian Blood Red Republic or the Infernal Fiend! for no deeds more fiendish were ever perpetrated in the history of man, than those committed & caused by the “Red Republicans” in the late revolt. It was these ignorant drunken brutes who in a great measure brought about the War with Germany which has ended in the dishonour of their Country & in tens of thousands of their fellow Countrymen being killed or wounded & also the Death or injury of many women & children and by their insane attempt to hold Paris & rule France, they have further caused the Slaughter of thousands of men, women & children as well as the destruction of their City & many of its treasures and by misleading women & driving them mad with drink, have caused them to act in such a way that the enraged Soldiers in their fury, have Shot down & Slaughtered women of Paris, young & Old! as if they were Wild Beasts!!! As there is a “Red Republican party in this Country, some National means should be taken to show these mistaken men that such plans if carried out, would not only destroy the laws of civilized Society but also be Subverting the laws of Nature – And therefore a law should be passed to make it criminal for such insane principles to be advocated.”