L'Homme a la boule (Draner), French caricature of a Prussian leader on a globe
A full-page caricature by Draner shows a moustached figure with an oversized head and a spindly body in a spiked helmet with a Prussian eagle, teetering on a globe on which 'Prusse' and 'France' are marked. The caption puts a mock German-accented French in his mouth ('Il me semple que je affre perdu l'egilipre'). The tell is the accent joke and the shrunken body beneath a giant head, which mock the enemy leader as a clumsy acrobat about to fall.
- Date
- 1870
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Draner (caricaturist), sold by Strauss and Madre, Paris; printed by Vallee
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- France
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Individual
- Regime
- Government of National Defense
- Leader
- Louis Jules Trochu
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Reassure
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- Franco Prussian War
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1870-71, before 1931; LoC rights statement: No known restrictions on publication in the U.S.)
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-21823
Text on the object
L'HOMME A LA BOULE par DRANER. Tarteifle ! je ne gonprends pas ce que j'ébrouve ? Il me semple que je affre perdu l'égilipre, et que mon pied il affre clissé sur la poule. En vente chez STRAUSS, 7, rue du Croissant, & chez MADRE, 20, rue du Croissant. 843. — Paris. — Imprimerie VALLÉE, 16, rue du Croissant. [on the globe:] PRUS[illegible] ... FRANCE [signature lower right:] DRANER [engravers' credit lower left, partly legible:] [illegible] sc.
THE MAN ON THE BALL, by Draner. 'Devil take it! I don't understand what I am feeling? It seems to me that I have lost my balance, and that my foot has slipped on the ball.' [The spellings gonprends, j'ebrouve, semple, affre, egilipre, clisse and poule mimic a German accent, with hard consonants and voiced/unvoiced swaps: comprends, j'eprouve, semble, ai, equilibre, glisse, boule.] On sale at Strauss, 7 rue du Croissant, and at Madre, 20 rue du Croissant. No. 843, Paris, printed by Vallee, 16 rue du Croissant.
Read from the committed image. 'Tarteifle' is a mock-German oath, plausibly from Teufel (devil); the gloss is Claude's inference. The globe labels and the engravers' credit are small and only partly legible. Machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.
