Caricatures of the collaborators of La Lune 1866

This is André Gill’s lithograph, "Caricatures of the Collaborators of La Lune," published in 1866. The lithograph presents a whimsical yet critical commentary through caricature. Note the composition. Gill arranges distorted portraits of the journal's contributors in a semi-circular fashion around a central image of an opened document, crowned with a crescent moon. Here, the form of the caricature serves less as realistic portraiture and more as a symbolic structure to the layout. Each figure, rendered with exaggerated features, plays a part in the overall visual narrative, framed by garlands. Gill's work engages with the semiotic function of caricature. The exaggerated forms and visual puns serve as signs, humorously revealing aspects of the subjects' personalities or roles. The use of caricature challenges fixed meanings of representation, suggesting an unstable and subjective interpretation of identity.