A. BELLOGUET - Lot 118

A. BELLOGUET "The traitor of Metz", François Achille Bazaine After 1870 colored lithograph 50 x 42 cm signed 'A. Belloguet' lower center In 1873, the man nicknamed "the traitor of Metz" was brought before a war council and sentenced to death and military degradation. Mac-Mahon, President of the Republic, commuted the sentence to twenty years' imprisonment. He escaped the following year and died in poverty in exile. The lithograph we're presenting is part of a series of caricatures known as "Pilori-phrénologie", which were very much in vogue at the time. All produced by our artist, they feature the heads of political figures, imagined as objects of phrenological study, highlighting their most shameful deeds. The Musée Carnavalet holds the same print, as well as many other sheets by this artist.