1903 Bressler / Charaire Chromolithographic Broadside of World Heads of State

This 1903 gilded chromolithograph, illustrated by Henri Bressler, presents portraits of forty-six heads of state from around the world. Designed for distribution to shoppers at the Bon Marché department store, it helped to familiarize shoppers with leading international figures while celebrating the French alliance with Tsarist Russia.

A Closer Look

This lavish illuminated chromolithograph includes circular portraits of 46 sovereigns and heads of state, embellished with coats of arms and flags. Pride of place is given to the French President Émile Loubet (1838 - 1929, in office 1899 - 1906) and Russian Tsar Nicholas II (r. 1894 - 1917). At this time, the French president held little power, the Third Republic having effectively evolved into a parliamentary system by the 1880s (Loubet had himself served as Prime Minister, a more important position, in 1892). Loubet's presidency was dominated by the Dreyfus Affair and questions of secularization and anticlericalism, but he worked to strengthen France's ties with Russia, which had been a formal ally of France since 1894, and with Nicholas II.

Below Loubet and Nicholas II are several rows of monarchs and heads of state, roughly emanating out by their distance from France. These include the famous, the infamous, and the insignificant. Notable among the monarchs are Leopold II of Belgium (r. 1865 - 1909), notorious for his scheme for the 'Congo Free State' that was anything but for its native inhabitants, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (r. 1888 - 1918), who would lead Germany into war against France hardly more than a decade later. Several lesser-known figures were significant for their reform efforts; Pope Leo XIII (r. 1878 - 1903), Prince Albert I of Monaco (r. 1889 - 1922), and President of the Swiss Confederation Adolf Deucher (elected four times 1886, 1897, 1903 and 1909) all tried to reconcile their societies to industrialization and the modern world despite considerable opposition. Perhaps as a slight, King Edward VII of Great Britain (r. 1901 - 1910) is buried in the third row, between the Grand Duke of Baden and Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway. In the fourth row are monarchs from Asian and African polities, including Egypt, Ethiopia, China, Korea, Japan, and Siam. The bottom row consists of the presidents of American republics, including President Theodore Roosevelt with pride of place at bottom-center.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process involved using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Oftentimes, the process would start with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors were layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired effect. Chromolithograph color could also be effectively blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it emerged as the dominant method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography produced made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda imagery.

Publication History and Census

This sheet was illustrated by Henri Bressler, engraved by Ducourtioux (Ducourtioux and Hillard or Verdoux, Ducourtioux, Huillard), and printed by the Imprimerie Charaire. Most of the portraits also credit an artist, photographer, or diplomatic office with providing an original on which Bressler could base his drawing. This sheet was specially created for distribution at the Bon Marché department store in Paris. This work is rare; we have only located two other examples, one at the Bibliothèque Forney in Paris and one at the Musée d'Orbigny-Bernon in La Rochelle.