Description:

Dreyfus Affair Courtroom Sketch of a Hero and a Villian

A courtroom sketch by French portrait artist Joseph-Félix Bouchor (1853-1937), in graphite, 1p, 9.5" x 12.5", Rennes, August 29, 1899. Pictured at top, French army officer and Minister of War Georges-Marie Picquart (1854-1914) and Jules Maximilien Lauth (1858-1943), an antisemitic member of the army’s General Staff responsible for the translation of German documents. At bottom right, two individuals identified as Lauth and Statistical Section Commandant Albert Cordier “at the bar” during the trial at Rennes. Minor wear, in fine condition.

The Dreyfus affair, or "L'Affaire", was a political scandal that began in December 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was convicted of treason. Dreyfus was a 35-year-old Alsatian French artillery officer of Jewish descent. He was baselessly convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, and was imprisoned on Devil's Island in French Guiana, where he spent nearly five years.

Georges-Marie Picquart took over the military counter-intelligence section at the French War Ministry in 1895 and his assistant, Jules Maximilien Lauth, brought him the petit bleu, fragments of a pneumatic tube telegram which implicated Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy (1847-1923) and exonerated Dreyfus. Picquart initiated a secret investigation into Esterhazy, who was an officer in the French army and spy for the Germans, while being spied on and deceived by members of his own staff, Lauth and French Lt. Col. Hubert-Joseph Henry (1846-1898).

The truth of Dreyfus’ innocence finally emerged in the summer of 1898, when Henry committed suicide after confessing his forgeries, and Esterhazy fled to England. The court annulled the 1894 judgment against Dreyfus and granted him a second military trial in Rennes. Dreyfus, frail and in poor health, sailed from his island exile on June 9, 1899, to appear at the Rennes trial on August 7th. The new trial resulted in another conviction and a ten-year sentence, but Dreyfus was pardoned and released, and in 1906, Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army. He served during the whole of World War I, ending his service with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The Dreyfus Affair’s significance is so far-reaching that the human rights movement, the origins of modern-day Zionism, and the French separation of church and state can all claim to have been born during this dark chapter in French history.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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