Le Débuché (The Release)

Jean Veber, artist

1864–1928

Le Débuché (The Release), 1914

Where object was made: France

Material/technique: lithograph; hand coloring

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 306 x 248 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 12 1/16 x 9 3/4 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 502 x 322 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 3/4 x 12 11/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 25 x 20 in

Credit line: Gift of Eric G. Carlson in honor of Stephen, Diane, Erica, Emily, and Caitlin Goddard

Accession number: 2004.0134

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Machine in a Void: World War I & the Graphic Arts," Mar-2010, Steve Goddard
In France, the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, received a large share of the blame for the outbreak of war. He was a popular target for wartime propaganda, appearing repeatedly in cartoons, lithographs for magazines, and even postcards. As long as Wilhelm’s distinctive mustache was present, the French viewer would have no problem reading even the most distorted figure as the hated Kaiser, a fact that many artists used to great effect.

Here, Wilhem II’s mustache is transformed into the upturned tusks of a wild boar, a common depiction of the Kaiser in French and English political cartoons of the time. In Greek mythology, boars were associated with Ares, the god of war, but they were also associated in Christianity with lust, rendering the connection of Wilhelm and the boar with several layers of negative meaning.