<p>Published right after Waterloo, this caricature refers at once to a popular card game and to a pro-Bonaparte newspaper founded in December 1814.  After Napoleon's fall, the newspaper's founder sought refuge in Belgium and continued to publish from there, switching the focus from pro-Napoleon to anti-royalist.  The legend above the plume ("to the highest bidder") suggests that the magazine became more opportunistic than loyal to Napoleon.  The card game, dating from the 18th century, requires players to get rid of the card with the yellow dwarf, symbolic of evil.  Thus, depending on your interpretation, Napoleon is either being propped up by the fickle media or by the forces of evil.  Whatever his meager support, it looks like he will fall anyway.<br><br>Reference source:  Clerc #121.<br><br></p>
<ul><li>Geographic coverage: France</li>
<li>Subjects (LCSH): Political cartoons; History--Caricatures &amp; cartoons; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821</li></ul>
DeSalles
1815<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1815-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://content.lib.washington.edu/napoleonweb/index.html">Napoleonic Period Collection</a>