Gavarni, Paul, 1804-1866 :"Comment, antropophage, ... tu te presentes dans une societe comme celle-lui? ..." "Tu ne manges pas les hommes, toi ... mais tu n'en es pas moins sans pitie pour eux ... tu les plumes! ..." Mon. Martinet, 172 r. Rivoli et 41 r. Vivienne / Lith. Destouches, 28 r. Paradis, Pre Paris. [ca 1852]

Shows what appears to be a French woman, dressed in men's clothes including a Revolution-style cap and military trousers, remonstrating with a Polynesian-looking man (or woman, likely to be Maori) about their audacity to appear as they look in French society. They refer to the Maori as 'antropophage' or cannibal. The native makes a sharp rejoinder by declaring that the French might not eat people, but they still show their lack of pity for them by (culturally) stripping them. It presumably refers to French colonisation, but it could also be hinting at a more subtle inclusion of the French people in an historical context. The native wears peculiar European-style clothing, including a green smock-type garment and red leggings. They have their hair in a topknot, sporting coloured feathers, and hold more feathers in their left hand, which they seem to be contemplating. This probably alludes to the comment '...tu les plumes!', 'plumer' meaning 'to pluck' (as in a bird)

It is not certain where the native is supposed to come from, but the fact that they are called 'cannibal' could refer to New Caledonia, where cannibalism was widespread, or to New Zealand, and possibly to the death of Marion du Fresne and his crew in the Bay of Islands in the 1770s. The native in the lithograph appears to look more Polynesian than Melanesian, however

Possibly taken from Gavarni's 'Masques et visages' of 1852-1853. Vendor suggests it might be a proof, as it lacks a title and page number at the top

Other Titles - "So, cannibal, how is it that you present yourself in society looking like that?" "You might not eat people ... but you don't show any pity for them anyway ... you [culturally?] strip them!" [translation]

Quantity: 1 colour art print(s).

Physical Description: Hand-coloured lithograph, 225 x 200 mm (to border), on sheet 313 x 260 mm