Sale 219 Lot 452

EMPEROR SOULOUQUE PLUNGES A EUROPEAN JOURNALIST INTO BOILING TAR, A DAUMIER SATIRE ON PRESS CENSORSHIP AND HAITIAN SOVEREIGNT Honore Daumier (French, 1808-1879), lithograph on wove paper, circa 1850, plate no. 145 from the series "Actualites," published in the Parisian satirical journal "Le Charivari," depicting Faustin Soulouque, emperor of Haiti, in a bicorne hat and military boots, holding a journalist upside down by the ankles over a cauldron of burning tar, while dancing figures and a field of sugar cane fill the background. The caption, presented as a notice from Haiti's official gazette, claims the emperor seized a European journalist who had criticized his administration and hoped the punishment would discourage a second article, and a "Note du Charivari" sarcastically recommends this "ingenious" method of curbing the press to the Burgraves, the conservative faction in the French Assembly, making the print a veiled attack on press censorship under Louis-Napoleon. Monogrammed "h.D." in the stone at lower left, numbered "145" at upper right, inscribed "Actualites" at top, "Chez Mme Ve Aubert Place de la Bourse" at lower left and "Lithie de Mme Vve Aubert r. Croix des Pts Chs 21 Paris" at lower right, with the full French caption beneath. Unframed. Sheet: 14 x 10.75 inches
$100-150