Original Old Satirical Drawing - Cnesure - July Monarchy

Very interesting original pencil drawing. It shows a grotesque, pot-bellied, and caricatured character, wielding huge scissors to cut off the heads or beards of two kneeling men. Dated 1841, it strongly evokes the satirical and political spirit of the 19th century—close to Daumier or Grandville, who mocked power and censorship. The theme of censorship under Louis-Philippe. In 1841, France was under the July Monarchy (1830-1848), led by Louis-Philippe I, known as the “bourgeois king”. This period was marked by strong censorship of the press and caricaturists, particularly after the laws of September 1835. These laws imposed: - the ban on caricaturing the king and members of his family, - close surveillance of the press, - severe penalties for any image deemed subversive. Caricaturists such as Honoré Daumier, Charles Philipon or Cham often represented the censors as ridiculous figures, armed with gigantic scissors cutting newspapers, tongues or the heads of artists. ***The scissors: universal symbol of censorship. The two kneeling men: perhaps journalists or artists reduced to silence. The corpulent figure: a civil servant or minister of the king, a caricature of bourgeois and authoritarian power. The date “March 17, 1841” also corresponds to a period when press censorship was particularly active (the Soult-Guizot government was in power).***This drawing most likely alludes to:Censorship of the press and cartoonists under the July Monarchy (laws of September 1835, still in force in 1841)It is therefore a biting political critique, in the tradition of Daumier and the Charivari.***Dimensions 18 x 24 cmDated and annotated top left.Old drawing in a good state of preservation - See photo