In Les Folies de la Commune, Cham repeatedly features a scruffy-looking man to represent the violent excesses of the Commune, an incendiary ‘pétroleur’ brandishing a light piece of wood and a can of petrol. In this print, he appears as a bearded ‘garde national’ paying homage to the dishevelled Revolutionary journalist Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793).  

Paris (16 rue du Croissant): au Bureau du journal L’Éclipse, [1871]

CUL, KF.3.12