Mr Trottman en Irlande (No. 19) - Le Charivari (Paris), ca. 1845

Satirical Lithograph on Newsprint — Complete Newspaper Leaf with Verso Advertisements
A rare French caricature of Ireland and O’Connell’s Repeal movement, from the “Voyages de M. Trottman” series attributed to Cham (Charles Amédée de Noé)

This leaf was printed in Paris roughly one hundred and eighty years ago — an authentic survivor from the years immediately preceding the Irish Famine.

Overview

A politically charged satire from Le Charivari, Paris’s leading illustrated journal of the July Monarchy. Published around 1845, at the height of Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal campaign, this leaf forms part 19 of the “Voyages de M. Trottman” series—episodes that sent a bumbling English traveller through Europe’s “uncivilised” margins. Here the scene is Ireland, rendered through France’s own colonial lens.

Full Text & Translation

1. M. Trottman donne un sou pour le libérateur, et deux sous pour le quêteur.
   → Mr Trottman gives a penny for the Liberator and two for the beggar.

2. Le quêteur qui ne s’est jamais vu à la tête d’un semblable capital se livre aux douceurs du far niente.
   → The beggar, never before master of such wealth, abandons himself to idleness.

3. M. Trottman se trouve au milieu d’un meeting.
   → Mr Trottman finds himself amid a political rally.

4. Après le meeting M. Trottman bassine son œil.
   → After the rally Mr Trottman bathes his black eye.

5. Puis il se couche.
   → Then he goes to bed — rats and all.

Historical & Political Significance

Printed just before the Great Famine, this lithograph collapses Europe’s politics into grotesque comedy. The Irish crowds are shown as violent and irrational; “the Liberator” O’Connell becomes a street-corner slogan. At the same time, Le Charivari uses the chaos of Ireland to lampoon Britain’s failed governance—France laughing at both coloniser and colonised while reassuring itself of its own civility.

The reference to “Repeal” fixes the piece squarely in 1843–45, when O’Connell’s “monster meetings” filled European newspapers. The earlier leaf (Trottman No. 18) and the later (No. 20) are catalogued in the Metropolitan Museum’s Cham holdings (Aubert & Cie, printer), confirming this issue’s authorship within that same satirical cycle.

Verso significance:

The reverse of this Charivari leaf bears advertisements for Parisian journals (La Sylphide, La France Médicale) and society news columns. Its survival complete is remarkable: such ephemeral broadsheets were typically read, handled, and discarded daily. The contrast between its recto (mocking Irish poverty) and its verso (celebrating bourgeois refinement) captures mid-19th-century Europe’s moral dissonance in tangible form.

Rarity & Condition

Unlike most surviving Charivari clippings, this is a complete newspaper leaf, verso printed with contemporary advertisements (La Sylphide, La France Médicale). Such intact examples are scarce—these ephemeral sheets were read to destruction.
Light age toning, small marginal tears, otherwise sound and legible; professionally flattened and suitable for float-mount display.

Scholarly Context

Continental depictions of the Irish are exceptionally uncommon. Where British artists such as Punch’s Tenniel or Cruikshank portrayed the Irish as simian, the French adopted a different exoticism—half-colonial anthropology, half-moral satire. This print is visual evidence of how racialised Irish imagery travelled beyond Britain, embedding itself in European bourgeois culture on the eve of famine.

Bibliographic References

• Le Charivari, Paris, daily edition c. 1845, Aubert & Cie.

• “Voyages de M. Trottman” series, nos. 18 & 20 (Cham) — Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

• Heidelberg University digital Charivari 1845 volume reproducing this exact No. 19 issue.

Dimensions

Approx. 32 × 24 cm (sheet)

Rarity Justification

• Series Attribution: falls between two confirmed Cham plates (Nos. 18 & 20)

• Pre-Famine Date: visual record of Europe’s view of Ireland before 1847

• Full Newspaper Context: verso text intact, rarely surviving

• Cross-National Subject: French satire of British imperial failure—unique collecting lane

• Museum Anchors: Met Museum, Heidelberg Uni, BnF holdings confirm authenticity chain