Book Illustration, Taxes, and Propaganda: The Fermiers Généraux Edition of La Fontaine’s “Contes et Nouvelles en vers of 1762” (review)

As we think of the inevitabilities of our existence, the pairing of death and taxes instinctively comes to mind, evoking images of the equally dreaded grim reaper and the tax collector. Although macabre, this association nonetheless reveals the degree to which taxes, and especially the people who collect them, have been viewed throughout time as reprehensible, repulsive, and even malevolent. Given such negative connotations, to examine, let alone suggest, a symbiotic relation between taxes and book illustration might appear, at first blush, an unlikely undertaking; however, David Adams embarks upon precisely this examination in his meticulously researched and masterful study of the 1762 illustrated edition of Jean de La Fontaine’s Contes et nouvelles en vers, an edition commissioned by and produced in collaboration with the Compagnie des Fermiers généraux.

Politically and socially powerful, the Fermiers généraux collected taxes on behalf of the royal treasury and, in the process, not only amassed great personal wealth but also a reputation for harshness and inflexibility. Why then, Adams asks, did the Fermiers, in light of the widespread hostility towards their organization, finance the publication of a sumptuous edition—embellished with more than eighty copperplate illustrations by Charles Eisen—of La Fontaine’s risqué tales? And why, shortly after their edition appeared, did the Fermiers withdraw it from sale? These two questions serve as the point of departure for Adams’s investigation into the complex relationship between the Fermiers and Eisen, between text and image, and between the Contes and public taste.

Adams divides his study into four chapters. Chapter 1, an introduction, provides essential background on the Fermiers, the publication history and fate of the Contes, a review of the illustrated editions of the Contes before 1762, and a discussion of the genesis of the 1762 edition as well as the circumstances surrounding its publication. Adams also explores a number of key issues raised by the study of Eisen’s engravings: the notion of collective authorship, the relation of image to text, the iconographic significance of particular motifs and styles, and the current methodological approaches (semiotic, narratological) that have been used to analyse illustrations. What ultimately emerges from Adams’s critical awareness of these issues is an articulation of his own sociohistorical approach to understanding the 1762 Contes: “We shall therefore ask whether the work can be seen not simply as an exquisite example of the pre-Revolutionary French illustrated book, but also as a document offering a significant view of its age” (58).

In chapters 2 and 3, Adams analyses the illustrations for both volumes of the Contes. Comparisons between Eisen’s engravings and those of his predecessors—Romeyn de Hooge and Nicolas Cochin— reveal the artistry and subtlety of the 1762 edition; moreover, these comparisons allow Adams to tease out recurring themes, such as unmanly conduct (plates for “Joconde,” “Le cocu battu et content,” and “Le mari confesseur”), the sexual potency of women (plates for “Les deux amis,” “Les Rémois”), the rejection of the irrational (plates for “L’anneau d’Hans Carvel,” “Le diable de Papefiguière,” “La chose impossible”), and the human penchant for self-indulgence that serves as the edition’s fil conducteur. Adams also pays close attention to the way in which Eisen positions his characters in the frame, the particular episodes from La Fontaine’s text that the artist chooses to illustrate, his use of lighting and shading, and the symbolic role that curtains, candles, swords, and hats play in the engravings. The analyses contained in these middle chapters serve as the visual and textual foundation for Adams’s conclusions, found in chapter 4.

The significance of the 1762 edition lies, Adams contends, in the fact that the “majority of the engravings show individuals asserting their independence of mind and action...