V. Lenepveu (pseudonym)

47 (from a series of 51) lithographic posters, unframed
Lacking posters #37, 44, 49, 50 from the full set of 51

Norman L. Kleeblatt. The Dreyfus Affair: Art, Truth & Justice, Berkeley and Los Angeles: 1987
Ruth Malhotra, Horror-Galerie: Ein Bestiarium der dritten Franzosischen Republik, Dortmund: 1980

The story of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army is widely known. Falsely accused of treason for selling military secrets to Germany and convicted of treason by a secret military commission, Dreyfus was stripped of his rank and imprisoned on Devils' Island. It was only after the affair had dragged on for a dozen years that Dreyfus was finally cleared of all charges by the court of appeals. French society was deeply divided by the Dreyfus case and hostile rhetoric led to widespread anti-Semitic expression in the popular press.  This scarce series of intensely provocative color lithographs was only one example of the virulent reaction to the Dreyfus Affair. The identity of the artist who signed each of the drawings (in the plates) is unknown beyond the pseudonym of V. Lenepveu. It is probable that the series was promulgated by Léon Hayard, the independent publisher who distributed a wide variety of anti-Dreyfus material including posters, pamphlets and even knick-knacks. In addition to provocative images of Alfred Dreyfus and Emile Zola, the journalist who took up Dreyfus' cause and penned the famous missive J'accuse, the remaining caricatures by Lenepveu excoriate a variety of prominent Dreyfusards, Republican statesmen and Jews, including no fewer than eight separate representations of members of the prominent Jewish Rothschild family. The publication of Musee des Horreurs was halted by the police after 51 numbers had been published.