Un Duel à Déventer (A Duel to Avert)

This French lithograph ridicules a absurd academic honor dispute between two scholars, rendered in the caricature tradition of Daumier and Gillray. The composition contrasts pompous military-uniformed administrators and seconds with the fallen combatant sprawled in the dirt—a visual joke on pretension collapsing into undignified reality. The exaggerated physiognomies and theatrical poses satirize institutional pomposity and the survival of dueling culture among educated elites who should know better. The print's energetic line work and dense captioning exemplify how 19th-century political caricature combined visual satire with narrative text, a direct ancestor to the sequential art and satirical cartooning that would define modern comics.