Gefährliche Bilder

Images may stabilise political situations or create insecurity. In this book, this is examined in relation to the countless prints of the ‘Cris de Paris’ (hawkers), created from the 16th to the 20th century. In addition, other representations of the so-called ‘lower classes’ are examined, for the ideas of the elites were increasingly shaped by events such as revolutions and uprisings, epidemics, and industrialisation. The elites’ fear of the political impact of images on the population is a central theme of this book, which focuses on the phase of the Restoration and the July Monarchy, since it was during this period that major social changes occurred in parallel with significant innovations in pictorial art and technology (lithography, wood engraving, photography).