Automobile Satire

This hand-colored lithograph depicts a chauffeur-driven automobile labeled '190.01'—likely referencing a luxury tax or registration fee—while a well-dressed man desperately clings to the running board. The French text above reads 'Misery of the poor due to the extravagance of our new wealthy ones,' targeting war profiteers who accumulated fortunes while ordinary citizens endured rationing and hardship during World War I's final year. The caricatured figures—rendered with exaggerated features typical of early 20th-century European satirical prints—represent class conflict through visual comedy. This work descends from the 18th- and 19th-century tradition of Gillray and Daumier, translating social protest into accessible pictorial humor. Such prints, distributed widely and cheaply, formed a crucial bridge between political satire and the comic storytelling that would define modern graphic narrative.