Caricature of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild as a monkey clawing through a treasure chest

Identifier
irn539588
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2016.184.323
Dates
1 Jan 1900 - 31 Dec 1900
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • French
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

overall: Height: 27.250 inches (69.215 cm) | Width: 21.000 inches (53.34 cm)

Creator(s)

Biographical History

The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.

Archival History

The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.

Acquisition

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Scope and Content

Poster with a caricature of Baron Mayer Alphonse de Rothschild with his head on the body of an ape with clawed hands digging through a chest of gold coins. It was part of Musee des Horreurs, an antisemitic series featuring 52 vicious caricatures of well known Jews and others involved in the Dreyfus Affair. It was produced in 1899-1900 by an artist under the pseudonym V. Lenepveu. The Rothschild family was not involved in the scandal, but their prominence made them targets of the anti-Jewish fanaticism engulfing France. The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal revolving around antisemitism that inflamed France in the late 19th century. Alfred Dreyfus was an army captain found guilty of treason in 1894 for selling French military secrets to the Germans. Antisemitic publications used Dreyfus as a symbol of the disloyalty of all French Jews. In 1896, another man was tried and acquitted of the same crime. Emile Zola, a prominent author and journalist, wrote a letter to protest the verdict, titled "J'Accuse," in which he accused the French Army of covering up its unjust conviction of Dreyfus. Zola was charged with libel and the Dreyfus Affair grew into a national political crisis. An Army intelligence officer was found to have forged the document proving Dreyfus's guilt. But in a second trial at Rennes, despite the confession of the traitor, Esterhazy, the Army again convicted Dreyfus. On September 9, he was sentenced to prison for another ten years. The verdict was met with outrage around the world, and there were threats to boycott the World's Fair in Paris in 1900. Dreyfus was offered a pardon by the president to end the crisis, which he accepted September 19. The poster is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.

Conditions Governing Access

No restrictions on access

Conditions Governing Reproduction

No restrictions on use

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Offset lithograph poster in black ink on light brown paper with handcolored details depicting a caricature of an elderly man wearing a black eyepatch, his head on the hairy body of a monkey. His forehead is furrowed and he has stereotypical Jewish features: thick, bushy eyebrows, a hooded eye, a large, hooked nose, and a fleshy lower lip. He has wavy, white hair, a bristled mustache, and bushy mutton chops. He is standing in quarter left profile, looking down at a large, unlocked chest in front of him. It is full of paper francs and gold coins marked 20 with busts on the reverse. He awkwardly rests his left hand on the money, his loosely cupped right hand lifting some coins and letting them trickle trough his bony, claw-like fingers tipped with long, pointed nails. There is French text across the top and bottom. It is adhered to a slightly larger linen backing.

People

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.