Bismarck, from Les Génies de la Mort

Art Institute of Chicago

Bismarck, from Les Génies de la Mort

Edmond Guilliaume

Date
1870
Medium
Color lithograph on ivory wove paper
Culture
France
Department
Prints and Drawings
Institution
Art Institute of Chicago

Edmond Guilliaume’s images are blunt caricatures that combine well-known German symbols, war leaders, and macabre images of destruction. Otto von Bismarck became prime minister of the Prussian state in 1862 and of the unified German Empire in 1871. To a French audience, he was the cruel leader of the Franco- Prussian War (1870–71). With a skull head, pointed Prussian helmet, and Prussian eagle superimposed on his face, Bismarck looms like a poisonous, grasping plant over the destruction of the French countryside. Playing off a noble coat of arms, Guilliaume gave the French enemy a ghoulish image of death.

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Object type
AAT300041273

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