This biting satire by Paul Hadol was the first in the famous book of satirical caricatures entitled La Ménagerie impériale : composée des ruminants, amphibies, carnivores et autres budgétivore qui ont dévoré la France pendant 20 ans (The Imperial Menagerie: composed of ruminants, amphibians, carnivores and other budgetivores which have devoured France for the past 20 years). In it members of the imperial family and grand dignitaries of the Second Empire (and their supposed failings) were compared to an animal.
Napoleon III is shown as a vulture holding a dying France in his claws.
The Imperial Menagerie. Napoleon III The Vulture (Cowardliness – Ferocity)
- Date :
- Circa 1870
- Technique :
- Lithograph
- Place held :
- Paris, Fondation Napoléon
- Photo credit :
- © Fondation Napoléon