The People in Chains by Dukercy

Year: 1932

Dimensions: 160 x 120cm

Materials/Media: Original lithographic poster, linen backed

In the poster "The people in chains", we recognize perfectly Louis Marin, in the center of the drawing, leader of the Democratic Republican Union (URD) ​​accompanied by Paul Painlevé (1863-1933) with his wick. The two leading horses are just as well known: on the left, André Tardieu and on the right, Pierre Laval (1883-1945). The team is completed by the immense André Maginot and by Paul Reynaud (1878-1966), whose short stature and Asian features were the favorite target of caricatures of the time. The “people” dragged and chained in a line of prisoners of the Great War or convicts blends into the gray tones, while the morbid yellow of prosperity stands out, led at a slow trot by the victors. The readable joy on the faces of the politicians contrasts with the disarray and the broken confidence of the population, enslaved or humiliated. The radical-socialists therefore call for the electoral revolt of the French against the supposed cynicism of a right which would be subject to the interests of Capital alone.