While many caricaturists were active in 1850s France, our collection features many works by Cham, a particularly popular caricaturist. Similar caricatures often appeared in Paris newspapers and magazines, reflecting strong European—and especially French—disdain for the Haitian Emperor Faustin I (born Faustin-Élie Soulouque). He was regularly portrayed as ridiculous or incompetent, and his efforts to rule as emperor were treated with derision compared to European monarchies.
This irony is notable, as French Emperor Napoleon III declared himself a monarch just three years after Faustin I took the title of Emperor of Haiti. Often, ridicule aimed at Faustin I served a double purpose. On the surface, satirists mocked the Haitian Emperor, using racial and colonial stereotypes. More subtly, these caricatures and critical commentaries gave writers a way to indirectly condemn Napoleon III, serving as a veiled commentary on France’s own political situation.
Directly satirizing Napoleon III’s coup and rise to power was risky and could lead to prosecution. As a result, criticism was often redirected at Faustin I, who became a safe target through whom concerns about autocracy, legitimacy, and monarchical rule could be voiced. In this way, the French media’s treatment of Haiti’s monarchy not only exposed colonial biases but also functioned as a coded denunciation of domestic worries, with Faustin I serving as a stand-in for anxieties about Napoleon III’s regime.
Related items in our collection include a booklet illustrated by Cham satirizing Emperor Faustin I and an exagerated figural pipe head depicting Empress Adélina of Haiti.
