Le Traître Philipp! – “Philip the Traitor.” Poster No. 32 from the satirical series Musée des Horreurs (“The Monsters’ Exhibition” / “Museum of Horrors”). Paris, [1899–1900]. In French. A hand-colored lithographic print depicting Jude Philipp as a bird nailed to a wall. Signed in print: V. Lenepveu. The poster was published in May 1900. Philipp, Deputy Director at the Ministry of the Navy, was convicted in absentia on May 10 for breach of trust and attempted fraud. He was suspected of being an ally of Alfred Dreyfus.
The series “Musée des Horreurs” (“The Monsters’ Exhibition”) was published during the Dreyfus Affair under a pseudonym. It consisted of 51 large posters featuring anti-Dreyfusard, antisemitic, and anti-Masonic caricatures. The series was issued in France over the course of about a year, from October 1899 to December 1900. The original plan was to publish 200 posters, but only 51 were ultimately released. The first posters in the series were widely distributed, with over 300,000 copies sold. In October 1899, the French police arrested several street vendors selling posters from the series, under orders from Police Commissioner Louis Lépine. According to some reports, Lépine acted following an appeal from Baron de Rothschild, who argued that the damage caused by the posters’ circulation was irreversible.
In February 1900, local police sent letters threatening to revoke the business licenses of shopkeepers who sold the posters. From that point onward, their distribution ceased.
Approx. 50×65 cm. Good – very good condition.
