31 x 25, on sheet 48 x 34 (centimeters, height x width)
Notes:
Following the capture of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian war and the defeat of the subsequent Third Republic, the Paris Commune rose and was violently subdued. This map shows France as a web, with the Communards (wearing their symbolic, red Phrygian cap) as a fly caught in the middle. Surrounding the "ambushed" citizens are four spiders representing: the Third Republic (upper left); Germany astride the captured areas of Alsace and Lorraine; Napoleon III (lower right), then in exile in England; and the Royalists, represented by a pear (the caricaturists' symbol for the rotund Louis Philippe).
Andre Gill was among "the foremost exponents" of the "new map genre," blurring the boundary between cartoon art and cartography. Barron 2008, 9. For another of his works, see ID # 2105 "Carte du Theatre de la Guerre des Journaux".
For other maps in the Collection related to the war, Search > "Franco-Prussian."