Two Soldiers Eating Sausages

This hand-colored lithograph depicts two military figures—one in white uniform, one in blue—contentedly devouring sausages while holding a whistle and what appears to be a grenade. The French caption reads: "Interior of Character: The great amateurs of color" and "And one pretends that the coups do not eat between them." Produced during World War I's final year, the print belongs to the European caricature tradition descending from Gillray and Daumier. The exaggerated physiognomy and anatomical distortion—bulbous noses, heavy features—typified wartime propaganda imagery. Such satirical broadsides, rooted in 18th-century print culture, fed directly into early comic strips and graphic narrative, which adopted caricature's visual shorthand for instant character recognition and social commentary.