On 16 May 1871, during the Paris Commune, the Vendôme column was taken down by the Communards, in a symbolic gesture that dismantled the Napoleonic legacy and its legend. Tried for having precipitated the fall of the column, the famous painter Gustave Courbet was imprisoned for this very reason, and sentenced to pay for its reconstruction. The column was finally re-erected at the beginning of the Third Republic. In this picture, Courbet is condemned to guarding the rebuilt column.

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

CUL, KF.3.12