Special issue of La Vie Illustrée (French illustrated weekly), dated August 10, 1899, titled: “L’AFFAIRE DREYFUS A RENNES” (“The Dreyfus Affair in Rennes”) –
A comprehensive report on the Rennes trial in which Dreyfus was found guilty of treason with extenuating circumstances and sentenced to ten years in prison (just months before his eventual exoneration). Includes numerous photographs documenting the events surrounding the courtroom.
On the front cover and the following page, Dreyfus is seen exiting the Rennes courthouse following the first hearing. Inside pages include detailed reports on the dramatic turn in the case, accompanied by an illustration of Dreyfus listening to the indictment (drawn by Georges Redon), as well as numerous photographs of the key figures in the affair, both supporters and opponents of Dreyfus, arriving at and departing from the courtroom. In September of that year, Dreyfus received a presidential pardon.
The 1899 retrial of Alfred Dreyfus in Rennes laid bare the profound moral collapse of the French military and judicial establishment: even after it became clear that the evidence had been forged and that the accusations stemmed from antisemitism rather than fact, the court chose to convict him once more, driven by fear of admitting error and undermining the army’s authority. Yet public and international pressure did not subside, and months later a presidential pardon restored Dreyfus’s freedom. Full legal and moral exoneration came only years later, when the Republic was finally forced to acknowledge the injustice and declare that Dreyfus had been innocent from the outset.
Complete issue. 36 cm. Very good condition.
