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| Title | La Consultation |
| Creator | [Dubois, Frédéric, 1760-?] |
| Publisher | Anonymous |
| Place of Publication | [France -- Paris] |
| Date | [1815] |
| Caption Text | Caption on image:
La Consultation (The consultation)
Dialogue and signage:
[Napoléon] Cher cousin, comment trouvez-vous mon état? (Dear cousin, how do you find my condition?)
[Cambacérès] Sire, il ne peut pas durer, Votre Majesté a une trop mauvaise constitution! (Sire, it can't last, Your Majesty's constitution is too bad.)
[Scroll on floor] Acte additionnel aux Constitutions de l'Empire ("Additional Act to the Empire's Constitution")
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| Historical Notes | On April 22, 1815, the Empire adopted an amendment to the constitution called the "Acte additionale", which is mocked in this caricature. Napoleon sits in a chair decorated with bees, symbol of his Empire. His head is thrown back, and his crown is falling off. His left arm hangs toward the ground, the index finger pointing to the constitutional scroll on the floor. Napoleon asks how Cambacérès finds his "state" (a play on words, since state means both condition and, when capitalized, the government). Cambacérès, taking Napoleon's pulse, says it can't last because he has a "very bad constitution" (another play on words). The use of these two double entendres make it clear that the consultation is about the survival of the Empire, not the Emperor. Cambacérès was known to oppose the Acte Additionale.
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| Publishing Notes | The drawing was published in May 1815. Dépot légal August 18, 1815. It also appears in the De Vinck collection,(# 9527-9528, at the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris).
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| Subjects (LCSH) | Political cartoons
History--Caricatures & cartoons
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
Cambacérès, Jean Jacques Régis de, 1753-1824
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| Geographic Coverage | France |
| Digital Collection | Napoleonic Period Collection
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| Digital ID Number | NAP45 |
| Repository | University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division. |
| Repository Collection | Napoleon Collection |
| UW Reference Number | F12 |
| Object Type | Print |
| Physical Description | Etching, hand colored ; plate mark 26 x 19 cm. on sheet 34 x 22 cm. |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from original drawing in RGB at 200-400 dpi, saved in TIFF format, changed to indexed color, enhanced and resized using Adobe Photoshop, and imported as JPEG2000 using Contentdm software's JPEG2000 Extension. 2006. |
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