A faut esperer q'eu se jeu la finira bentot LCCN2004676889-restored
Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress
1789
- Classification
- Painting
- Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit line
- Library of Congress Catalog: https://lccn.loc.gov/2004676889 Image download: https://cdn.loc.gov/master/pnp/ppmsca/05800/05897u.tif Original url: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004676889/
- Rights
- Public domain, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
About this work
Famous political cartoon from the time of the French Revolution (circa 1789). It is a satirical representation of the division and extreme social inequality that existed under the Ancien Régime, structured into the so-called Three Estates.
The bent man (The Third Estate): He represents the peasantry and the working classes. He wears worn clothes, leans heavily on a hoe (a farming tool) that reads "mouillée de larmes" (wet with tears), and bears the entire weight of society.
The man in the middle (The Second Estate / The Nobility): He is an elegantly dressed aristocrat with a sword at his side. Documents protruding from his pockets represent seigneurial rights and the collection of land rents.
The man in the background (The First Estate / The Clergy): He represents the Catholic Church. He wears his ecclesiastical vestments, and papers related to tithes and the institution's tax privileges protrude from his pocket.
At the figures' feet, animals (hares, rabbits, and birds) can be seen devouring the peasant's crops. This is a direct reference to the strict feudal hunting laws of the time, which prohibited peasants from killing animals that destroyed their harvests, as hunting was…
