Bismarck, from Les Génies de la Mort
Medium
Color lithograph on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 55.3 × 44.3 cm (21 13/16 × 17 1/2 in.); Sheet: 70.3 × 53.6 cm (27 11/16 × 21 1/8 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
119383
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Edmond Guilliaume’s images are blunt caricatures that combine well-known German symbols, war leaders, and macabre images of destruction. Otto von Bismarck became prime minister of the Prussian state in 1862 and of the unified German Empire in 1871. To a French audience, he was the cruel leader of the Franco- Prussian War (1870–71). With a skull head, pointed Prussian helmet, and Prussian eagle superimposed on his face, Bismarck looms like a poisonous, grasping plant over the destruction of the F...