The “Père Duchesne” is a fictional irreverent and subversive popular character from the French revolution. The Fils du Père Duchêne illustré, a magazine published twice weekly from April to May 1871, supported the Paris Commune but criticised its excesses.

On the cover of 27 Floréal 79 (using the revolutionary calendar) [17 May 1871], Napoleon III, called by his nickname “Badinguet”, is featured as a bat holding a statue of the politician Adolphe Thiers, and a bust of Marianne, allegory of the French Republic. Still hungry for power, he hopes (in vain) to benefit from the civil war between the moderate French Republican government led by Thiers and based at Versailles, and the more radical Paris Commune. The rhymes anticipate the imminent massacres of the Bloody Week, when the Commune is defeated.

Paris : 27 Floréal 79 (17 May 1871)

Donated by Frederick Justen (Dulau & Co) in 1906.

CUL, Syn.5.87.106