Lepetit, Alfred (painter, lithographer, journalist, and chansonnier; Aumale 1841 – Levallois-Perret 1909). Garibaldi, Italy’s famous national hero as laurel – “Le Laurier” – mighty on a small horse, whose pedestal bears the inscription “Au Général Garibaldi, La France reconnaisante”. The papist guzzler made the acquaintance of La Grande Nation in the Vatican state where two French brigades assisted the papal ones in the protection against the intruder. But in 1870 after Gambetta’s proclamation of the republic he hurried to the latter in Tours. In the war against Germany he run only pitiful interference so that he annoyed the catholic Frenchmen all the sooner by his Pope hate, whereupon he turned home. Colored lithograph. Inscribed: Alfred Le Petit PARIS 15 Février 1871., otherwise as above and below resp. 24 x 13.5 cm.

Osterwalder, Dictionnaire des Illustrateurs, p. 622. – Plate 19 of Le Petit’s “Fleurs, Fruits & Légumes du Jour”. – With the address of L’Éclipse and that of the printer Coulbœuf, both Paris. – In the white lower margin a little brown-stained. – With distich:

« Comme le laurier dont il est couvert, / Malgré son grand âge, il est toujours vert. »

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