Le Petit Poucet (Hop O'My Thumb)

C. Cousin

Le Petit Poucet (Hop O'My Thumb), 1914–1918

Where object was made: France

Material/technique: hand coloring; lithograph

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 326 x 489 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 12 13/16 x 19 1/4 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 451 x 567 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 17 3/4 x 22 3/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 25 in

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

Accession number: 2004.0153

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.

This lithograph casts Wilhelm II as the ogre from the French fairy tale Le Petit Poucet, written by Charles Perrault in 1697. The Allied forces take on the role of the story’s hero, Le Petit Poucet, and his brothers, and Cousin shows them in the process of stealing the sleeping ogre’s seven-league boots.