Babylone d'allemagne

1894

34 1/4 x 48 1/2 in /
86.4 x 121.9 cm

Key stone printed in olive-green, color stones in yellow, red, black, stone with text in dark blue on one sheet of wove paper
Printed by Chaix
Commissioned by Victor Joze

The subject is a book exposing the decadence of Berlin society, written by Lautrec's friend Victor Joze. His poster focuses the spectator's attention on the hindquarters of four horses, the largest of which is also being closely observed by a caricature of the Kaiser standing in a guardbox. The implications of this, along with the book's title, provoked a protest from the German ambassador to France and nearly caused an international incident. Joze, too, wrote Lautrec asking for him to withdraw the poster, as he felt the depiction of a German officer, together with the anti-German tone of the book, would not be tolerated by the police and could get him in trouble. Lautrec, however, refused to stop distribution of the poster, and as he had paid for it himself, the published was not able to stop the distribution. Thereafter, according to art dealer Edmond Sagot, the value of Lautrec's work quadrupled.

References: Wittrock P12, Adriani 58