14. Charles-Joseph Travies de Villers
(1804-1859)

The Political Tower of Babel

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Travies de Villers: The Political Tower of Babel

The Political Tower of Babel

Lithograph, 1834, 240 x 275 mm., Vicaire & Colonne 73, published in La Caricature, March 15, 1834. "Constructed as a prison to hold all the Republicans, Legitimists, Napoleonists, and the enemies of the Citizen King, essentially the entire city of Paris." Just like its biblical forebear, here is a tower that, in Louis-Philippe's vision, would reach to heaven and in which nobody could understand anyone else. The only real difference is that Louis Philippe's tower is a prison. A fine impression on white wove paper cut just barely into the text at top and bottom, narrow margins at the sides.