Hint: Mouse over image for zoom and download controls

Comments and Tags (4)
...testCaroline Hayden, 1/9/2018
Hello!Michael Ticzon, 5/23/2019

Tags

Share
Download as PDF

Phryne Before the Chicago Tribunal

Permanent ID:
11585
Call number:
Bc 612 P 567
Language:
English
Date:
June 4 1884
Image Description:
The Political cartoon parodies Jean Léon Gérôme's famous painting Phryne before the Areopagus. In Gérôme's painting, an ancient greek courtesan named Phryne is put on trial for a capital crime. Hypereides, her lawyer, believes she will be convicted, and disrobes her in front of the tribunal. The court is overwhelmed by her beauty and acquits her of the charges.

Gillam's political cartoon pokes fun at James Blaine, an 1884 Republican presidential candidate, by illustrating him as Gerome's Phryne. Blaine wears shorts and a bib and is covered in tattoos illustrating his corrupt political dealings. Transcribed on the lower right corner of the image is "with apologies to J.L. Gerome". Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune, takes the role of Hypereides and unveils Blaine to the stunned ancient Greek tribunal made up of 19th century prominent Republicans including George W. Curtis, William M. Evarts, Carl Schurz, Theodore Roosevelt, Benjamin Helm Bristow, Warner Miller, William Henry Robertson, John Alexander Logan, John Sherman, James Donald Cameron, Benjamin Harrison, and George Edmunds. According to the Library of Congress, the cartoon also depicts Simon Cameron, but the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's editorial staff is unable to identify Cameron in the cartoon.
               
Gillam, Keppler, and Opper illustrated a number of cartoons featuring the tattooed man. Phryne before the Chicago Tribunal became one of the most well known and controversial political cartoons of the 1884 election.
Format:
Clippings; Political cartoons
Publisher:
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Collection:
Historical Society of Pennsylvania large graphics collection
Related People or Organizations:
Bernhard Gillam, 1856-1896 (artist)
Biunno, Diane (Transcribed by)
Biunno, Diane (Encoded by)
Mayer, Merkel & Ottmann (lithographer)
Historical Society of Pennsylvania (repository)
James Gillespie Blaine, 1830-1893 (depicted)
Whitelaw Reid, 1837-1912 (depicted)
Curtis, George William, 1824-1892 (depicted)
William Maxwell Evarts, 1818-1901 (depicted)
Schurz, Carl, 1829-1906 (depicted)
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., 1858-1919 (depicted)
Benjamin Helm Bristow, 1832-1896 (depicted)
Warner Miller, 1838-1918 (depicted)
Robertson, William Henry, 1823-1898 (depicted)
John Alexander Logan, 1826-1886 (depicted)
John Sherman, 1823-1900 (depicted)
J. D. Cameron, 1833-1918 (depicted)
Simon Cameron, 1799-1889 (depicted)
Benjamin Harrison, 1833-1901 (depicted)
Edmunds, George F. (George Franklin), 1828-1919 (depicted)
Jean Léon Gérôme, 1824-1904 (mentioned)
Phrynē (AKA Mnesarete) (mentioned)
Keppler & Schwarzmann (publisher)