Color illustration of Dreyfus waiting for the 2nd court martial verdict
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 15.125 inches (38.418 cm) | Width: 10.000 inches (25.4 cm)
Creator(s)
- Jean B. Guth (Artist)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
- Vanity Fair (Publisher)
- Vincent Brooks, Day & Son Ltd. (Printer)
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 lithograph 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
Courtroom portrait of Alfred Dreyfus awaiting the verdict in his August-September 1899 court martial trial in Rennes, France. The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal revolving around antisemitism that inflamed late 19th century France. Dreyfus was an army captain found guilty of treason in 1894 for selling military secrets. Antisemitic publications used Dreyfus as a symbol of the disloyalty and treachery of all French Jews. In 1896, another man was tried and acquitted of the crime. Emile Zola wrote a letter, J'Accuse, to protest the verdict, accusing the French Army of a cover up. Zola was charged with libel and the Dreyfus Affair grew into a national political crisis. An Army officer was found to have forged the document proving Dreyfus's guilt. But in this second trial at Rennes, despite the confession of the traitor, the Army again convicted Dreyfus. The verdict was met with outrage around the world. The President pardoned Dreyfus to end the crisis. The lithograph 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
Color lithograph print of a whitehaired man in uniform seated in a wooden chair in left profile with his feet tucked back beneath him. He wears pince-nez, which hide his eyes, a black military style jacket with gold buttons and trim and red cuffs, white gloves, black pants with red stripes, and black boots with small spurs. In his lap he holds a white piece of paper and a black hat with yellow trim. He is balding with has short gray/white hair and a short black mustache. Light gray shading in a trapezoid shape covers the background at the bottom. JB Guth, the artist’s signature, and RENNES 99 are printed in red ink in the bottom right corner. English text is printed in panels at the top and bottom.
People
- Dreyfus, Alfred, 1859-1935--Pictorial works.
Subjects
- France--Politics and government--1870-1940--Pictorial works.
- Jews in art.
- Jews--United States--Illustrations.
- Jews--American periodicals--Pictorial works.
- Jews--United States--Pictorial works.
- Antisemitism--France--19th century--Pictorial works.
- Jews--Persecution--France--19th century--Pictorial works.
Genre
- Art
- Object